Trust
by LucyNyy
Summary: AU - The life in Gand Line city has never been easy, but when Zoro is paired up with a certain blond for a school project, things was suddenly taking a turn for the worse. Would he be forced to run away yet again? And what is it about the perfect blond that confuses and intrigues him so? What is Sanji's dark secret? Includes Het, Yaoi, Torture, Rape, Violence, Drugs and more.
1. Chapter 1

**Trust**

**[THIS IS A REVISED CHAPTER] **

An **AU** ZoSan-fic by LucyNyy

**Summary:** AU-high school life. Sanji is believed to live the perfect life, he's handsome and a straight A student at Arabasta High. But behind the façade his life is not so perfect as one think, can a certain green haired teen help him out or will he back away when he figures out the truth?

This is my first fan-fiction published, so reviews are welcomed, anything to help me get better.

Rated **M** (for good reason)

Includes Rape, Torture, boyXboy, Yaoi, Swearing, sex and very graphical content. (If you don't like, don't read!)

Eventual ZoroXSanji

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece or any of its characters; they all belong to the wonderful Eiichiro Oda. I do not earn any money on this story nor do I want to. I simply write for the fun of it.**

1#

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, I didn't mean to be late, but one of the teachers wanted to talk to me about me earning some extra points for college, I'm sorry, just please…"

It was the second time this week that he had come home late due to teachers wanting to talk to him about how well he was doing or about some extra work to earn some extra points. He tried so hard to get home on time, but somehow he always ended up being late by 5 to 10 minutes. He wasn't one of the popular students at school, mostly due to people being afraid of him. He didn't mind it much; he would rather be alone than to live through the pain when they left him later, like always. He was a straight A-student and the teachers liked him, and that was all that mattered now, he needed a scholarship so he could get away from the hell that was his life. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

He had come home 10 minutes late due to his home-ec teacher wanted to talk to him about doing some extra work to gain some extra points for his culinary scholarship next year, of course he was interested and he knew he had to take the offer, he had just wished that it would take less time than it did. His father was furious, being home on time was one of the things that he was most obsessed with, saying that being on time to whatever would benefit him for the rest of his life, it was just that his way of teaching included punishing his son whenever he did anything wrong. It seemed that in his father's mind this was considered normal, punishment and reward, though there was a serious lack of the latter. He wanted to believe that this was his father's way of showing his love, but that wouldn't explain why he always got blamed and punished for every mishap that happened around the house. Maybe if his mother was still alive his father wouldn't hurt him so much, but he knew that it was his fault she was dead, and he deserved to be punished for that.

"How many times have I told you to be home on time?" His father screamed as he sent a fist flying to his face sending him across the room. "You little piece of shit, I should have given you to an orphanage the moment you were born! Now get into my room and strip your bottom half, you will get your punishment for this!"

He slowly got up from the floor, his head pulsating from the impact from where his father had hit him. Slightly dizzy he stumbled towards the master bedroom without saying a word. He had learned to keep his mouth shut the hard way when he was younger. Having being beaten since he could remember he had once tried to stand against his father, but that had led to worse punishment than he could ever imagine. Now that it had become a daily routine he knew that keeping his mouth shut, the punishment would go without him being tied down and whipped while his father had his way with him, though his father would do that occasionally for the fun of it.

He got to the bedroom and stripped as his father had said, bending over the bed and spreading his feet apart. He heard his father take of his belt and walked behind him. "You were 10 minutes late boy, that means 10 strikes, and you will count them aloud!"

"Yes father." He could not stand against him, submitting was the only way to get through it, and he hated himself for being so weak.

The first strike was always the worst. As he heard the snap of leather against naked flesh, he bit down hard onto his arm as to not scream aloud when the pain came. "One" he panted through his teeth. The next one followed right after and he had to concentrate to not yell out; by the fifth he could barely feel it due to the numbness, but he knew the pain would come later, it always did.

He heard his father starting to pant slightly and knew that it turned him on immensely to see his son so weak. As the tenth strike was done he let himself fall down on the bed, burrowing his head in the sheets hiding the tears that had started to fall down his cheeks. _Fuck._

His father took his pants off and he felt him lean over his back. "If you had come home on time we wouldn't have to do that as foreplay, but since you don't seem to learn I have to punish you harder and harder each time, not that I mind it, but you do want to walk tomorrow don't you?" His father's hands stroked his hair slowly, almost caressingly, it was sickening.

Yes, he would like to walk tomorrow, but arguing with his father wasn't something he was willing to do at this point, so he simply nodded his agreement hoping it would be enough for now. He really didn't want his father to hear his cracked up voice as he knew it would be due to his crying.

"Good, now if you come home late more this week you know what I have to do right?" His father's voice was hoarse as he was started to pull his hear, he nodded again, not daring to speak, he knew what was coming and he had to ready himself for it.

Forcing his lower half to relax he waited for his father to thrust into him, without prepping him and the use of lube, he just hoped he wouldn't get ripped this time. He felt the hand on his hair slowly sliding down his body to join the other on his hips and then his father's thumbs pressed his ass apart. He tried to relax again and mentally escape into the safe place in his mind, like he usually did, but with the force his father thrust his cock into him he could not think of anything besides the feeling of being ripped apart and the excruciating pain that erupted in his lower back. He didn't get the time to adjust to his father's size before he drove all the way out and then thrust hard into him again, hitting his prostate dead on, making his vision white for a second. The pleasure that would have come with that was lost in the overwhelming pain that ripped through his body. _Fuck, Fuck, Fuck I'm getting hard by this, damn. _He hated that what his father was doing was turning him on. Cursing his treacherous body for getting turned on by this torture he bit down on his arm to try focus on that pain instead and as to not scream out from the pain. He would not give his father the pleasure of hearing him scream.

Then as he was sure his father noticed he had gotten aroused he had started to apply more force in each thrust increasing the speed making the thrusts at random and it was getting harder and harder to keep from screaming. The pain was just too much now, the tears was streaming faster down his cheeks and he wanted to scream for his father to stop, but he couldn't and wouldn't let his father see how much it hurt. He would never let the man win that battle.

Through the pain he started to feel the build up to his own climax, he wished his body to stop betraying him, not wanting to show his father how much his body enjoyed being used as a sex-toy while his mind screamed for it all to end. His father was close to coming now, he could feel it, the thrust was slowing down but the force behind them was still equally strong if not stronger. He could feel his father's breath on his back sending shivers down his back, suddenly his father reached under him and started to stroke his member in time with the thrusts. _Damn, why did he have to do that? Fuck I can't hold on any longer._

"I'm... dad... coming..." he tried as hard as he could to keep his voice steady, but he noticed it was shaky, and he was sure his father had heard it to. "Then come you piece of shit!" and as on cue he came hard on the bed beneath him while his father pumped him through it. His father came too after a couple of more hard thrusts and rode out his climax until he collapsed onto his sons back.

When his father had pulled out and gone to the bathroom to clean up the after effects, he had just wanted to curl up on the bed and let the nightmares take him, but he couldn't move, it just hurt too much, both from the whipping and the sex. _Fuck I hate this! I hate him and I hate this fucking weak body!_ He wanted to yell and scream to his father about how much he hated him for what he was doing to him, how much he hurt him day in and day out, but he didn't have the strength or the courage to do it. He felt so completely weak and vulnerable and he hated it.

While waiting for the throbbing pain to subside he heard his father enter the shower in the bathroom across the hall, he needed a shower too he reminded himself, his father's cum and his own blood was still running down his thighs and his stomach was plastered with his own cum. _Disgusting._ And as if that mental image was not enough the only thing he could smell around him was sex and the stench from his father's alcohol breath. It would have turned anyone's stomach around, but as he was so used to it by now he only felt disgusted by it because of his own weakness, and for not being able to stand up to the bastard.

Noticing he was able to move slightly again, he dragged himself onto the bed and curled up so to be in the most comfortable position he could find. Years of being beaten and raped had given him a lot of time to find out how to live through pain and how to avoid positions that would bring more pain than needed. It had become a part of his daily life now, in the beginning his father would only beat him, and occasionally use his belt to whip him. Then on his tenth birthday his father had said it was a birthday present and forced him onto the bed, stripped him and raped him. From there the whipping became more violent, the cuts got deeper and his father had to patch him up because he was unable to do it himself. The raping was not used for punishment until a while later when he had carelessly spoken his mind about the torture he was receiving. His father had tied him up against the wall and fucked him so hard he wasn't able to sit or stand for about a day afterwards. He was eleven then.

_God I hate this and shit I really need a cigarette_. Lifting his hands he reached into his pocket on his hoodie, which he was thankful to have left on, and fished out a cigarette. He knew his father hated it when he smoked in his room, but he didn't really mind it now, he wouldn't fuck him again tonight after this, and what was a couple of more punches, he was hurting anyway.

Lighting up and taking a deep drag he let the nicotine fill his lungs. The buzz helped him calm down a bit and he felt himself relax a bit more. His father was still in the shower, probably jerking off, he was always good for more rounds after he had fucked him. At least he had the decency to keep it to one go and not rip him anymore than he already did. Finishing the cig he finally felt the exhaustion from the day coming over him and after dropping the cig in the glass of water on the bedside table he drifted off into his normal nightmare filled sleep.

/_Standing in front of him was the mirror; he was looking at his beaten body. He was bleeding, he could see that, and he knew why. The razor in his hand told him he was the one who had made the cuts on his forearms. Looking up, he saw his face, his lip was split from where his father had hit him and his chin was slightly swollen. "_You're weak!"_ His reflection screamed at him and he knew it was true. He was weak. _"Come on take the blade and end your pathetic life!"_ No, he didn't want to die, but his body wouldn't listen, he saw how his hand raised itself and placed the blade on his wrist and how it was dragged down hard in a vertical line along the skin. He wanted to stop, he didn't want this, he tried to scream for his body to stop but no noises would come. He watched as his blood dripped from his wound and he knew it was too late now, he had done the unspeakable. As the blood continued to flow he fell to floor and darkness came over him/_

Waking up he noticed he was covered in sweat and his body was shaking. _Just another dream huh._.. Looking around he noticed he was in his own room, he still had his hoodie on and his father had had the decency to put his boxer back on. _Why fucking thank you for that, now it's gonna be covered with cum and blood_. Cursing under his breath he sat up slowly, trying to minimize the pain shooting up his spine as he did so. On his bedside table his father had left some painkillers and a glass of water for him like usual. He took the pills and drained them together with the water in one go. Looking over to the watch it read 0515, three hours until school started. Well at least he had some time to get ready and presentable then and maybe he could get some homework done too.

When the painkillers started to kick in he slowly put his feet on the floor and got up. Stumbling slightly he reached the bathroom door, noticing the door into his father's room was open he quickly took a glance inside to make sure he hadn't woken him. He hadn't, letting out a sigh of relief he closed the door and went into the bathroom locking the door behind him. Another important thing he had learned the hard way. Taking off his clothes he looked himself in the full-body mirror, the damage from yesterday wasn't as bad as he had thought; his lip was split and his chin slightly swollen, his ribs wasn't aching so much anymore, though you could still see a slight hint of reddening from where his father had kicked him some days earlier. His forearms bore the signs of his recent cutting; though they weren't that deep he knew there would be some scarring later. Turning around he saw the marks of his father's leather belt red against his creamy white skin. There were still traces of blood and cum along his thighs and he didn't really dare to think about how he was going to take a shit later. _Damn him if I need stitches again; fuck if I have to ask him to call her again_.

He hated that he had had to go to an acquaintance of his father to get stitched up in the rear no more than six times this year, and four of them the last two months. She was paid to keep her mouth shut about it and so she did. Not even asking him about what it was his father was doing to him, but he guessed she knew and could not say anything on the matter. But either way it was humiliating, having to ask for someone to patch him up when his father got a bit too rough. Before he would be kind enough to at least use some type of lube and prep him first, but that was a while ago, when he was a bit younger. Now a days he would just thrust in without warning and keep on thrusting until he came, not bothering about the pain he would cause his son the next couple of days. Well, he was kind enough to give him a couple of painkillers in the morning to dull the pain enough for him to get through the day, so some humanity was still left in him at least.

Finishing the damage control he stepped into the shower, and he welcomed the hot water as it washed away the evidence of what was left from yesterday. Letting the spray hit his back helping him relax his sore shoulders and softening the tenseness in his muscles. Letting his mind drift as he thought of Vivi's slender waist, Nami's enormous breasts and Kaya's cute and oh so kissable lips._ Damn, what would I do if those girls were single? Too bad Vivi is Khoza's, Nami is Luffy's and Kaya is Usopp's. It's just unfair how they can have such gorgeous girls and I have none._ He stroked his member slowly imagining three of the most beautiful of flowers around him. It didn't take long until he found his release, panting slightly he cleaned himself once more and exited the shower.

He dressed in his usual attire, black skinny-fit jeans, studded belt, a fitted orange button-up shirt and a black west on top. His hair fixed so that it covered his left eye and applied some make-up to cover up his bruised chin where his hair didn't reach. It had taken him some time to learn how to do it, but at least it would be better than to have to answer how he got the bruise in the first place. He had usually answered that he got into a fight on his way home from work, but since his father had made it a daily activity, it was getting harder to find cover stories so he had given up and bought the make-up instead. Looking in the mirror again he found it acceptable, his shirt covered his arms well enough so the cuts didn't show, it hung loosely around his chest so it didn't irritate his tender ribs and his jeans were just loose enough so it didn't irritate his thighs too much. He put his victorian pocket watch in his jeans and hooked the chain to the belt hoop above. Looking at the watch it read 0610. Noticing he still had an hour and an half until he had to leave for school he made his way to the kitchen, knowing his father was expecting him to make him breakfast before leaving.

When breakfast was finished he rapped his father's in tinfoil and put it in the fridge, hoping he would be sleeping until he was gone. Looking at his watch again he still had an hour left, so he brought out his books and thought he might finish up some of next week's assignments, not that he really needed to, but the extra points would come in handy later. Once every couple of minutes he would strain his ears for the sound of his father waking up, but he only heard his snoring. Sighing in relief every time he noticed he really couldn't concentrate on his work so he gave up. Packing up his things he contemplated going to school early, he could always go to the library and study there.

_To Father_

_I've gone to school a bit early; your breakfast is in the fridge, just take off the tinfoil and put it in the microwave for about two minutes and it should be fine. I have work after school so I will be home at 10pm._

_Sanji._

Leaving the note on the kitchen counter where he knew his father would see it; he put on his black converse and left the house.


	2. Chapter 2

Trust

A ZoSan-fic by LucyNyy

This is my first fan-fiction published, so reviews are welcomed, anything to help me get better.

Rated **M** (for good reason)

Includes: rape, torture, boyXboy, yaoi, swearing, sex, and very graphical content. (If you don't like, don't read!)

Eventual ZoroXSanji

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece or any of its characters; they all belong to the wonderful Eiichiro Oda. I do not earn any money on this story nor do I want to. I simply write for the fun of it.**

* * *

><p><strong>2#<strong>

His head was hurting like hell, he knew it would. Partying on a Wednesday night will leave you hung over the next day. But it wasn't the booze's fault, he never got hung over by booze alone, but when pot was involved, then he would be fucked. And that was definitely what had happened last night. He had just gone over to Robin's to grab a few beers and watch a movie with her and Ace like they normally did on a Wednesday night. But somehow they had ended up sharing a couple of joints and more than a few beers. Ace had brought with him some new stuff that they had to test before Ace put it on the marked, and man it was good shit. He could still feel the calmness and carefree feeling in his body; just how a good joint is supposed to leave you, except for the headache, but that was his own fault. He really needed to learn self control when it came to mixing his drinking and smoking.

On opening his eyes he realized he was still at Robin's place, in her bed and naked. _Fuck._ One person on each side of him told him enough. Though it was kind of nice having someone sleeping beside him, he wasn't exactly fond of the idea of having both Ace and Robin by his sides cuddling with him. They were just friends, and he would really like it to stay that way. Slowly raising his head to look at the watch on the bedside table it read 0630, they had an hour before they had to leave for school. He nudged Robin; she belonged to the race of women after all so she would probably need more time to get fixed for school.

"Hey Robin, its six thirty, how long do you need to get ready for school?" He slightly nudged her again.

"Huh, oh about half an hour or so, you can take a shower before me if you like." Good, he really needed a shower, coming to school smelling like sex, booze and pot wasn't really something he was fond of.

"Thanks" He slid out of bed, careful not to wake Ace in the process, though that would be highly unlikely to happen, Ace was the heaviest sleeper he could think of, beside himself that is.

Making his way to the bathroom, he picked up his discarded clothes on the way; Robin had seen him naked before so he didn't really mind that she was checking him out from the bed. He wasn't really into women, but he was not the one that had fucked her last night, that had been Ace. She did give him a rather nice blowjob though, and he had appreciated her for that. Stepping into the shower he recollected what had gone down the previous night.

They were all high and slightly drunk and Ace had thrown out the idea of them having a threesome, at the time it had seem like a good thing to do. He had been getting slightly aroused by looking at Ace's nicely toned body. And damn Ace was hot looking. His slightly dishevelled black hair that hung around his face, his freckles that gave him a very cute look and his godly toned abs.

They had made their way to Robins king size bed. Seriously why did all women have such extremely large beds? But it had been nice to be able to move around without having to fear falling on the floor. It had started out with him making out with Ace and Robin giving him a blowjob while stroking Ace's member at the same time. It had been a silent agreement that Ace was bottom, which he didn't really seem to mind. When they had broken the kiss after a fight of dominance, which he had won of course, Ace had taken Robin on top of him and started to kiss her.

He had sat in between Ace's thighs with Robins back against his chest. His hands had found their way to her breasts and he had slowly worked her nipples so they were hard and highly sensitive. She had given a nice low moan when he had pinched them and she had ground her hips down so she met Aces member making him moan low as well; which made his own member twitch with want.

"Robin do you have any lube?" His voice was hoarse with want.

"mmmhm, ah, it's in the drawer on the bedside table" He had stretched out and opened the drawer, rummaging around for a bit before he found the object he was searching for. Withdrawing his hand with the lube he'd opened the cap and poured out a generous amount onto his hand, coating his fingers so they were nice and slick. Leaning into Robins back he had one hand on her breast as the other found its way to Aces entrance. Circling around it for a bit before he let one finger glide inside. Ace had bucked his hips at the sudden intrusion making Robin moan out loud; his member had slid inside her as he did so. He pressed another finger in, and slowly thrust them in and out in time with Robin's riding; he then started scissoring them to stretch the entrance. Ace gave out a low hoarse moan as he hit his prostate and he pulled out earning a slight whimper from Ace, he positioned himself and slightly raised Ace's hips to get at a better angle.

"You ready?" He needed to be prepared for this; it would hurt a lot more if he wasn't. Ace nodded, he took the lube and ran his hand over his erection, he'd let out a hiss as the liquid come in contact with his member, stroking himself a couple of times he positioned his member at Ace's entrance, Robin had slowed down so to give Ace the time to stay still when he was entered.

"Relax"

He pushed the tip of his member inside, letting him get accustomed to the difference in size from his fingers._ Damn he's tight._ When Ace let out a slow sigh he pushed further in slowly, when he was fully seated Robin started to grind slowly down on him again.

"Mmm yeah...go..." He pulled out slowly and thrust back in, in time with Robin. They worked in perfect harmony, and soon he could feel the slowly burning flame in his abdomen getting stronger, he started to thrust harder, hitting Ace's prostate each time so Ace moaned louder.

He couldn't hold on much longer now. "Shit... ah... I'm close..." He breathed out biting down on Robins shoulder. "Mm yeah me too... ah..." She too had picked up the pace. Ace only nodded as he was unable to speak between his moans. Robin came first, grinding fast down on Ace and let out a low moan as she threw her head back onto his shoulder. Ace taken by surprise came hard inside Robin as he thrust deep in her earning a slight gasp from her, arching his back in the motion and moaning loudly.

As Ace arched his back he too thrust deep into him spilling his seed hard inside; the sudden tightening making him unable to hold back any longer. Breathing heavily he fell forward onto Robins back who again had fallen over Ace. When he finally came down from the high he pulled out and laid himself beside Ace. Robin climbed off and laid herself on the other side of him and they had drifted off sleep together.

He had been mindlessly stroking his member from the memories, and had come at the same place as last; a slight groan had slipped past his lips in the motion. Not that he minded it, but he wasn't sure if Robin was ok with him jerking off in her shower. _Well too late for thinking that now, what's done is done_. He cleaned himself and after a second thought he cleaned the shower as well, she was a woman after all and he did have some respect for her. He dressed in yesterday's clothes; he really didn't have the time to go home to change into fresh clothing so it would have to do. Checking himself in the mirror he found it acceptable, his baggy dark blue jeans hung nicely on his hips just below the rim of his boxer, a slim-fit black t-shirt showed off his muscles in just the right ways and an open zip-up hoodie on top. He tied his black bandana over his unnaturally green hair so that it slightly covered his eyes and exited the room.

Meeting Robin in the hallway she took a quick overlook of him, nodded in acknowledgement and stepped into the bathroom behind him. She usually did that, and he didn't really mind, she was always honest about what she thought of his clothing style, not that it would have mattered anyway, he usually didn't care for style as long as the clothes were comfy to wear. But he did sort of secretly like looking like a badass at school, scaring the younger kids and such; it had become a hobby for him and Ace during recess. Not exactly bullying, they didn't mess up kids who didn't deserve it. But they gave the kids who thought they were something a bit of a fright, taking care of future generation bullies one could say. The teachers didn't like it though, but that was to be expected really, they were seen as troublemakers and was treated as such. He had given up long ago trying to explain his case, telling the teachers and the principal that the kids had deserved it, but it was a lost cause. The two teens had come to an agreement that they would take the punishment they got.

Walking into the bedroom again he saw Ace still asleep, snoring lightly._ Fuck he's cute when he's sleeping._ He knocked him on the head roughly.

"Hey Portgas wake up, it's time for school soon and you really need a shower before we leave. Robin is in the bathroom now, but she'll be done any minute so get up." He stepped back as the other teen flung out an arm to hit him, having learned what to expect when waking him up he dodged it easily.

"Fuck, what the hell happened last night? I hurt like shit much." Ace groaned, turning his head towards him.

"We had a threesome, you bottomed." He couldn't help smirk at his best friends' discomfort.

"Yeah makes sense, my ass hurt like hell"

"Is to be expected when you had my dick showed up your ass, I might have been a bit rough at the end, sorry."

"Nah, its fine, got any painkillers? I have to be able to move for the rest of the day you know."

He found some aspirin and handed it to him. "Want some water with that?" Dry swallowing wasn't always pleasant he remembered. Ace simply nodded. Turning to head for the kitchen he heard Robin slightly humming in the shower._ Well at least she had fun last night._ He smiled softly from the sound, nothing had changed.

He gave Ace the glass of water and headed for the kitchen again, the coffee was just about done and he poured a cup for himself and went into the living room. Empty beer cans littered the floor and some half-smoked joints lay around the table. Finding a plastic bag he started to pick up the cans.

"Thanks for the coffee." She made her way into the room and helped him pick up the rest of the cans.

"Least I could do." She was wearing her normal black leather miniskirt and a black tank-top, outlining her waist perfectly; she had put on her high-heel boots that went up to her thighs and her black leather jacket as well.

"Ace awake?"

"Yeah, he's waiting for the painkillers to kick in so he can move, shouldn't be long, then he'll probably need a shower." He grinned at her and he knew she knew why.

"Never would have thought him to bottom, but I guess it was inevitable, you would never have agreed to do that." She smirked back at him.

"Nah, not that I would mind getting screwed by Ace though, but fucking you at the same time? Sorry, but that would never happen." It was the truth, he wouldn't mind getting fucked out of his mind by Ace, but Ace was only one tenth bi so it would never happen. Ace was his best friend, and he didn't want to risk getting feelings for him by doing something like that.

"Yeah I know, you're gay and all." She gave him a sympathetic smile; she knew it would never happen too.

"Damn man how rough were you last night, I could barely sit up, and wow Robin you really know how to ride a man." Ace was standing in the doorway grinning, having finally been able to move he had taken a shower and was wearing yesterdays clothing just like himself. His trademark black shorts with a studded belt, an orange t-shirt, and his orange hat that hid most of his dishevelled black hair.

"Haha, sorry man guess I got a bit carried away, heat of the moment type of thing you know?" He had hoped he hadn't hurt him too much, but he was prone to lose control when he was fucking someone or when he got into a serious fight.

"Yeah I know, and its fine, the painkillers worked wonders. Hey Robin how long until school starts?"

"Fifteen minutes, so if we take the bikes we can cut through traffic faster." He nodded his agreement. Taking the bikes would be the best, His and Robin's that is; Ace had taken the car yesterday so his bike was still at his apartment.

"Ace you driving with Robin or me?"

"I'll take Robin's and she'll sit on the back with me, right Robin?" Robin nodded her agreement.

"If you promise you won't try to kill us this time."

"Whoa, hey, Zoro is way more dangerous in the traffic than me, his sense of direction sucks so bad it's amazing he even got the slip. You did get the slip right?" Ace grinned at him, he knew full well that he didn't pass the test, but neither of them really cared for that shit anyway.

"Yeah you know I never took it, didn't see the point of it." He grinned back. He knew he would never pass that test anyway so why waste the money.

They made it down to the garage and each put on their helmets. Striding over to his own custom bike Franky had made for him; he couldn't help admiring the work on it. It was painted a deep dark green with the Japanese symbol for three on the side of the gas tank painted in gold; the seat was just far enough back so he had to lean slightly forward to the handles. I was a damn nice piece of machinery too be honest and he loved it to no end. Robin's was more of a girl's bike painted a deep purple with a faded flower on her tank, and that too was custom built for her. Franky had made one for each of them as thanks when they had helped him around the shop for a while keeping some government people away when they had threatened to shut him down. Ace's was the same model as his, though painted black with flames on it. It wasn't a big secret that Ace was a bit of a pyromaniac so it was only fitting that his bike would look like it was engulfed in flames.

Franky really was good at reading people, he had one day a couple of months later come to them and said he had a gift for them in the garage as a thanks, and they had been presented with their own custom built bike that had screamed their personality so well it was scary. They didn't even have to ask which was who's because it was clear as days to them. He didn't even want any payment for them and only told them to bring them by once every six month to do a check up on them. They were of course speechless by it. He smiled as he remembered the test drive of it, letting a finger run along the side of the tank.

"Hey man, stop daydreaming we're gonna be late, and be sure to keep behind me and Robin at all times, you don't wanna get lost now do you?"

"Yeah, yeah let's go then."

Starting their engines the low rumble of his bike sent shivers down his spine. He loved the feeling of her, almost as much as he loved the feeling of fighting and wielding his katanas. They sped onto the road at top speed, ignoring the stop signals and cruised through the streets dodging cars left and right. It had become such a normal way of driving that neither of them was afraid of it anymore. On arriving at school the guards just shot them an evil glare and shook their heads, no matter how many times they had told them the speed limit on school grounds they wouldn't listen. In fact they really didn't care; they were seen as troublemakers anyway so they didn't bother following the rules anymore.

"Hey Ace did you get the time?"

"Nah I forgot, think we broke the record?" They had been keeping score over how fast they could get to school from Robins apartment since they got the bikes and currently had the record of 3 minutes and 20 seconds, the trip would normally take about 10 minutes by car and keeping to the speed limit.

"We used 3 minutes and 45 seconds, sorry guys, but my bike isn't as fast as yours you know. I might have to ask Franky for an upgrade again." Robin had taken of her helmet and was placing it on the one of the handles trying to get the chain to lock around it. It was true, her bike was slower than theirs, but it still had immense power in its engine, so asking Franky for another upgrade might not be such a bad idea.

"It's alright Robin; we'll break it next time, right Ace? Damn it would be sweet hitting 3 minutes solid."

"Haha, yeah it so would. Luffy would go ballistic if we managed that, you know I think he's even taking bets from his friends on whether or not we manage to hit the 3 point mark."

Ace's little brother, Luffy, was a freshman this year, he was literally a bouncing ball of energy and you could not help but smile when he was around. Luffy had too, as his brother, fallen into the category of troublemaker. Mostly due to his never ending energy and the teachers didn't really know what to do with him. He had adopted his brothers' way of defending the weaker students against the bullies and was often blamed for having started fights. Truth be told Luffy did start them occasionally, but only when there were a serious reason to, and he knew when to stop. He had only seen Luffy seriously harm another kid once, and that had been because one of the rich-ass kids had forcefully used one kid as his slave for over a week, and treating said kid as nothing more than shit. He and Ace had been planning to threaten the rich-kid if he didn't stop, but Luffy had taken it to the next step and punched the kid so hard in the face he flew into the wall, broken nose and blood everywhere. Of course had he been expelled for a week after that, but none the less, he was proud of what he had done, and Ace was proud of him. Thinking back it was pretty awesome how much the kid had bled, and he had to admit to himself that even though Luffy looked like a skinny little kid he was probably one of the strongest fighters at school.

Walking past the guards into the school yard he couldn't help himself to grin at the scowl he received from them, they would probably get a detention later, not that it mattered really, he just had to call his sensei at the dojo and tell him he'd be e bit late again. His sensei had probably already postponed his session anyway knowing that this was a regular occurrence.

"So I have home-ec first period, so see you guys at lunch ok?"

"Yeah, try not to burn down the kitchen again then" Ace laughed after him. Yeah that was true; he had almost burned down the kitchen last time. Chuckling to himself he made his way to his classroom.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note:** I'm really, really sorry that it took me so long to post a new chapter, but I've had a major writers block for almost 4 months now, and also I've struggled with what direction I want this story to take. But I think I've managed to work things out a bit now. Not sure when I'll update next though.

I know the first two chapters had lemons in them, and I was thinking on continuing that, but seeing as I have had a plot change I'm not going to that anymore, there might be the occasional lemon here and there, but don't expect it every time. Also there's not going to be any ZoSan for a long while, I'm kind of trying to build up to it slowly, 'cause you know, it's all about trust. And I'm sorry for the OCness, but it's a fic so deal with it.

I've also made the characters ages younger than in the anime/manga.

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><p>#3<p>

He had fallen asleep over his books and was suddenly woken by the bell, signalling the start of first period. _Well F my life._ He had home-economics first period and should have been there fifteen minutes ago, due to the extra work he had been given the previous day. Rushing to gather up his things he made his way towards the classroom at top speed. He didn't care if he looked like a fool in the process, and nobody really cared about it either, they knew he was a top student, and him being late wasn't anything new. Though most of the time he were late due to his father would give him a final beating before he left, and not because he had fallen asleep in the school library. Not that it mattered now anyway; he was late again and he hated himself for it.

Skidding to a halt outside the classroom door he fixed his hair slightly so it still covered his bruised face, checked to see that his sleeves were still covering his arms, and tried to steady his breathing so that he could get the pain in his chest under control. His thighs were burning from the run, but he was going to be standing a lot in class so it didn't matter that much, at least he didn't have to think about the bruises on his thighs getting more irritated.

Sighing he lifted his chin up and put on his normal fake smile before he knocked on the door and entered.

"Sorry I'm late Iva, I'll bring you the late slip at lunch."

He chanced a look around the room noticing that all was counted for except him. Looking over at their teacher he had to suppress a shudder. Emporio Ivankov, a large and boisterous man was nothing less than a drag-queen; wearing a rather revealing pink undergarment that he would think no woman (and especially no man) would look nice in, fishnet stockings and matching pink high-heel boots. To top the image Iva had an enormous purple afro on which he had a crown on top. The image was to say the least, horrifying and slightly revolting to anyone who didn't know the teacher. Hell, he himself had wanted to quit the class at once when he saw him and run away, not to see the drag-queen again, but he had stayed and learned to tolerate the man. The clothing was still a bit hard to get used to, but he was getting better and better at suppressing the shuddering.

"Sanji-boy there you are, I was wondering if you had lost your way, but now that you are here we can begin."

He made his way over to his station; he had been given his own station after the first day due to him being so far ahead of the class, so he was allowed to do whatever he wanted most of the time. He took out his self-made cooking book from his bag, thinking he could make another dish to add to it today.

His dream was to publish his own cook book in the future as well as start his own restaurant if he ever had the money for it. If he could hold on that long that is, but he was confident that he would one day leave this shit hole and start a new life without his father's torture. He was turning eighteen next year after all, and was legally free from his father's clutches, but there were still the matter of him knowing too much of his father's connections and work that he might not be able to run away without getting killed in the process. Well, getting killed would perhaps be a relief really, at least then he wouldn't have to deal with all the shit any more.

"Listen up candies, we're going to start on a new subject this month and I have divided the class into pairs to make it fair for everyone."

The class groaned in unison, Iva was always dividing them into pairs that really should work well together based on their strengths and weaknesses, but it tended to be with people who wasn't really on terms with each other. He had often been allowed to work by himself when it had come to culinary projects due to him being so far ahead of the class, which would make it easy for the other students to ace the project without having to do shit. But now that they were moving on to a new subject there were no way Iva would let him do that, he just hoped that he would be paired with someone tolerable at least.

"We're starting on family relations, and you are to write an essay on it that you are going to hand in to me in four weeks. The criteria's for this task is that you have to have a minimum of 45 hours spent together acting like either siblings, spouses or parent and child, in which you have to incorporate your own upbringing and family life as it is today. Your essay have to contain a log over your time spent together where you write what you did and give an explanation of why you acted the way you did. There is no real limit to how much you have to write, but try to make it at least five computer written pages."

Once Iva had said to incorporate his own experiences his mind had gone blank, there were absolutely no fucking way that he could do that. His family experience was based on abuse and torture and the thought of anyone finding that out was so frightening that he would rather stab himself in the chest than to ever talk loudly about it. He figured he had to plan a believable lie he could tell, but he knew nothing of how 'real' families were supposed to be in the slightest. He had never had the comfort of having a feeling of safeness in his home; that feeling of belonging, the warm feeling of being loved or anything else that fell under the category of 'family'. So how the hell was he supposed to make up a plausible lie about his home situation?

"Sanji-boy you will be working with Zoro-boy for this project, and no, there will be no switching of partners on this project."

He vaguely registered that he was being talked to and nodded, somehow managing to understand that he was to work together with a Zoro, who ever the fuck that was.

His mind was going in overdrive, how the hell was he going to lie about his life? Should he mention that he was an only child and was living with his father? That was normal right? But what about his upbringing, he didn't have any happy childhood memories as far as he could think of. He didn't have any birthday parties or happy Christmas mornings. No playing with friends on hot summer evenings, no long road trips or other family vacations. There had only been cold and heartless pain and suffering on his part, so how could he ever pretend to have had the most beautiful childhood possible when he didn't even know what those words meant. It was so fucked up that he wanted to clutch his head and rip his hair out in the process in hopes to ease the thoughts running at top speed through his mind, but he stayed put and pretended to listen to Iva dividing the rest of the class in pairs.

When Iva clapped his hands together as to say 'begin' he snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the rest of the students pairing up and starting the discussion about the task ahead. Not noticing the teen that were making his way over to his station while rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"You Sanji right?"

He flinched slightly as there came a voice from his left, turning his head he realised who he was looking at; a green-haired teen at the same age as him that screamed troublemaker from a miles distance. No doubt, this was Arabasta Highs notorious troublemaker Zoro Roronoa, whose file at the principal's office filled no less than a whole cabinet together with his partner in crime Ace D. Portgas' file.

"Yeah, Zoro was it?" There was really no need to ask, but there was a formality to be upheld, Zoro was from the east-side he had been told, kind of hard not to notice it really, with all the small-gangs causing havoc over there and all. Never the less there always needed to be a type of formality when speaking to people from other turfs and gangs. He, himself didn't like to think of himself as a part of any gang, but he _was _the son of one of the top gang leaders in the whole city, and most of the students knew that, and treated him accordingly, some with admiration (_probably hoping I'd become just as notorious as my father, as if!_), some with fear and some with contempt. Not that any of it mattered to him really, if only he could finish school and leave this horrid city he'd be happy.

"~hellu? I'm talking to you shithead... seriously man wake up"

A hand was being waved in front of his face, to close for his liking, but he fought the urge to flinch ever so slightly at the gesture.

"Ah... sorry I was spacing, you were saying?"

"I was asking you how you'd like to do this shit, seeing as you're from the north and I'm from the east, it could cause both of us a serious problem dickface"

"Oh, yeah it would, wouldn't it...? Well, we could meet at school, but we'd be hours short on the project and I really don't want to be seen dragging your sorry-ass along all the time, makes my image look bad yah know, and I really need to ace this project." It was the truth really, well a half truth or something, it would be a slight problem if they were seen being chatty with each other, and he **really** needed to ace the project if he wanted that scholarship later, and his father would probably either kill him or don't give a damn if he got less than an A. He preferred not to know.

"We could try schedule something out, a place where we could meet and do it when we both have time for it, personally I don't care for the project, but I'm not going to be a dick about and if you're really serious about getting A on it, I'm in"

Sanji was slightly taken aback, Zoro, the notorious bad-boy troublemaker Zoro was being civil to him. How the fuck did that happen? Northerners weren't really liked by the Easterians because of his father and his ways of ruling the entire north-side alone. So how could it be that this person who lived in the east could even think about **trying** to be civil, let alone **be** civil, and almost friendly-like towards him? Zoro was most likely faking it; he was probably putting on the nice-guy act for the project to make it as painless for both of them. Well fuck him for trying to fool Sanji Black. He would get Zoro to show his true colours during the project for sure, so maybe he should play along the fake-act for the moment? Well he wouldn't really be faking it, he really wanted to be civil towards everyone really, but the problem was that everyone saw him in the light of his father, and that his nice-guy-act was fake; so he would gain their trust and shatter it like his father had done countless of times before. He hated it really, he knew that people secretly hated him, but acted nice towards him in fear of getting their lives fucked up by his father's crew. He wanted so bad to rid himself of his father's shadow hanging over him all the time, but really, there weren't anything he could do about it, yet. _Damn._

"Um, sure why not, but I'm really short on free time during the weeks due to some shit I've got to do every day, could probably squeeze in a 30 min meet-up after school some days though. And on Saturdays too, but Sundays I'm mostly free so we could probably meet up then, don't know where though. And lunch-hours at school we could probably sneak up on the roof and work on it. How 'bout you?"

"Well I've got some free time during the weeks, and yeah we could probably sneak up on the roof during lunch, gonna be pain getting rid of Ace though, but I'll see what I can do. Weekends are better yeah, I've only got training and coaching on mornings and evenings so should be fine finding some hours in between it all. I know this one location we could meet up without having prying eyes on us for some hours, ever heard of Little Garden on the outskirts of the south-side?"

"Little Garden? That forest nobody goes to 'cause of that incident a few years back?"

"Yeah, it's a nice spot to meet up 'cause no one goes there because everyone thinks it's too dangerous, it really isn't though. Sure the animals in there are a bit fucked up, but they rarely attack small fries like humans, so what do you say, sounds okey?"

"Yeah probably for the best too, meeting outside of south district since the people there tend to keep to themselves so we won't have a problem with anyone finding out."

The south-side was ruled by one of the cities warlords too, a flamboyant man by the name of Donquixote Doflamingo, though not to the same extent as his father did in the north, the south was actually one of the cities more peaceful areas where things were happening in secret rather than, as in the north, in public to scare people away and to gain more power. It was however the best place in the city for night-time outings, it had multiple casinos, bars, nightclubs and strip-clubs for VIPs only, this however was for the public, what went on under the tables and in some basements over there was to say the least, mind-fucking.

Doflamingo was truly a man to be feared, he was a ruthless and a sadistic man who loved to torture people by getting into their minds and setting people against each other for fun, where they would in most likelihood kill each other, and if they came from it alive they remembered everything they'd done, but had no means of stopping their actions when they did it. It was something Sanji hoped he'd never had to experience. He didn't have any desire to kill another person, and he really didn't want to end up like his father, though he would be lying if he said that he hadn't thought about the possibility that it was genetic. Even if he ever killed someone in self-defence he wouldn't know how to deal with it really, sure he knew how to fight; it was an unspoken rule in Grand Line that if you couldn't fight you'd be killed for sure. He had fought a lot during the years, but always had the restraint to not kill the person, badly beaten someone yes, but never killed. He'd watched too many people get killed before his eyes by his father to ever want to inflict something like that on anyone. No, he wasn't going to be like his father or any of the other gang leaders, he wasn't going to become a leader of any sort; the thought of it terrified him too much.

"So... Should we try to set up a plan together then?"

"Oh, yeah... I can set up a schedule of my weeks, cause my work schedule is sort divided into two sets, which probably is for the best in terms of the project, cause then we'd be meeting at random making it less suspicious or some shit."

"Yeah ok, I'll do the same then, and we can compare and see when both of us have free periods where we can meet up."

He knew his schedule by heart now; Zeff had kept him on the same schedule since he started working on the Baratie when he was 12 so that he wouldn't get in trouble at home. He would work from 4pm to 9.30pm Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays on the first week and on Wednesdays and Fridays the second week, and on every Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Zeff had managed to negotiate that schedule with his father and said that it would be good for both Sanji and him to have some breathing time away from each other, especially after an incident that happened barely two months prior. Sanji had to suppress a shudder when those memories threatened to surface again, he really couldn't be thinking about that shit now, he had to focus on getting the schedule down on paper for the project.

It wouldn't have been a problem doing the project on days where he was off work if it hadn't been for that damn curfew his dad had set in order and refused to change no matter how old he got. And his father was extremely strict when it came to breaking that curfew, on days with work he had to be home by 10pm on the latest, no exception, and on work free days he had to be home by 3.30pm, and as he had experienced yesterday; being home by 3.40pm was unacceptable. Even the weekends had crazy curfews, he had to be home by 9pm on Saturdays and 8pm on Sundays, he could on rare occasions get permission to be out until 10pm on Saturdays, but that was so rare that he really couldn't remember the last time it happened. But how could he explain to Zoro that he had batshit-crazy curfews? He was 17 for fucks sake and in his senior year none the less. Small kids had curfews and even theirs were more flexible than his.

He could say that he had to get home early those days because his father needed him to do some work, but that would be to say that, yes I'm my dad's runner, and yes I'm proud to be in his fucked-up-shitty-demonic gang and I'm going to take over the family business when he dies. No fucking way that he would say something like that, then what the hell could he say to explain why he had to be home so fucking early? Telling the truth was definitely out of the picture, saying that he was too afraid to speak up against his father would be to admit he was weak, and no fucking way would he ever admit to it, though he knew it so well it hurt. He could just say that he had to be home because of his father and never actually go into detail about it, cause seriously he didn't even know the whole reason why his dad was so fucking nazi on the whole thing. So just saying he had to be home early those days and not give an explanation would probably be for the best, and why should Zoro even care, he probably thought that he was his father's runner anyway. _Fuck him for thinking that_.

"Alright, here's mine, as you can see I've only got about 30 min between school and work those days, and only a couple of hours after I finish work on Saturdays, so Sundays are really our best choice to get together over a longer period of time where I've got the entire day off. What about you?"

"Well mine is not as hectic as yours to say the least, but I've usually got kendo in the evenings every day of the week from 6pm to 10pm Mondays to Fridays, except some Wednesdays where I usually hang with friends, and in the weekends I usually have kendo from 9am to 12pm in the morning and 7pm to 9pm in the evenings, but it could work out if we get together on Saturdays from 4.30pm to 6.30pm and Sundays somewhere between 1pm and 6pm. And we could also probably meet after school on the roof and on some days during lunch, don't know if it would be enough hours though, but I think this is the best we can hope for really."

Looking at Zoros schedule he couldn't help but envy Zoros freedom, he really wished he could have the same freedom as him, being able to be out late and leave whenever you wanted without risking a beating or something worse as punishment. It also sounded like Zoro didn't really have to train every day if he didn't want to or if he wanted to be with friends instead. Friends huh? Another thing Sanji didn't have and never had growing up, it had been lonely at times he would admit that to himself, but he really couldn't make friends that easily with a father such as his and also growing up in constant fear made it hard for him to trust other people, always thinking they were out to fuck him over one way or another. During his school years he had a real problem connecting with other children and it wasn't until he started high school he actually started to be able to have decent conversations with other people, even if he had to put on the mask he'd learned to wear early on in order to keep the conversation flowing artificially natural. He hated that he always had to pretend he lived a perfect life so that people would talk to him, but the thought of someone knowing the truth scared him far too much to ever let the facade drop.

"Yeah, that could work. How 'bout we start by meeting on the roof after school today? I don't start work until 4 so we could discuss what roles we are playing and shit, and how we are to write the essay on it, and also what part of our lives we have to incorporate into the project."

Sanji mentally cursed Iva for making such a horrid project, and the internal debate about how he was to make a plausible lie on the whole thing started all over again. It wasn't until Zoro slightly nudged him in the shoulder that he surfaced from his thoughts and flinched at Zoros gesture. It probably didn't mean anything, but Sanji couldn't help flinching when people touched him, it was something he really had no control over after all his father had done to him. The fear that they could somehow feel all the scars on his body and all his pain by just touching him was something that he had started believing years ago, and though he knew people couldn't do that now he couldn't help himself to fear it still.

"Seriously dude if you keep spacing like this, the projects never gonna be finished... Anyway meeting later is no problem, but I'm meeting some people at lunch so after school works. The roof, yeah? Didn't know you knew about the shortcut up there, thought you were too much of a good-guy to actually risk getting caught doing something like that."

"Ha-ha, funny guy you are, who in this school doesn't know that shortcut? Besides it's the best place to light up a cig without getting caught."

"What? You smoke? Seriously man, never thought you to be packing death sticks"

"Would you keep it down, if Iva finds out they're gonna raid my locker and shit, and yeah really, I smoke. Why would that come as a surprise to you anyway? I recon you do shit like that too"

"Sorry man, it's just that you've always had this nice-guy act, so never would have thought you to actually have a bad-ass attitude. And yeah I do shit too, but never at school and I've almost quit now, it keeps messing up my training."

"Well good for you moss-head, I'll quit when I die."

And that might just come sooner than he'd like to admit. Not that he was contemplation suicide or anything; he'd tried so many times in the past but never actually been able to go through with it he'd given up trying. No, it was his father he feared would kill him one day, if out of drunken rage or in cold blood he couldn't say for sure, but it was almost bound to happen one day. He just had to hang on for another ten months then maybe he would be free and away from there. _Ten more months huh..._

"Alright candies, remember that even though this is a home project, doesn't mean you don't have to come to class every week. You will have to give me weekly reports on how the project is coming along, and if you have any questions regarding the project you know where to find me, I'll see you next week then"

Sanji gathered up his books and shoved them into his bag, _fucking great, weekly reports, we're so screwed..._

"Soo... See you on the roof after school then?"

He turned halfway towards Zoro, there was no going back now, he'd have the rest of the school day to figure out a plausible lie about his home-life or he'd screw everything up.

"Yeah..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors note:** The next upcoming chapters are not very eventful, and I'm sorry for that, but I feel they are necessary to rest of the story, to give you guys a better chance of understanding what's going on and why things are happening as they are. I have tried to not include too much, and leaving some things in the dark, but as I've got most of it in my head it's kind of hard to know what to write at times, so that I don't give away too much of the story just yet.

I also have a hard time limiting my chapters so these next chapters were at one point just one chapter. If you want my chapters to be longer, or if you feel I give away too much information please let me know, also any mistakes you find would be nice to know about so that I can fix them.

I'm going to try to update once a month after this one, so you won't have to wait a year for the next one...

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><p>#4<p>

As Zoro was leaving the home-ec classroom he couldn't help but having a hard time wrapping his head around the project, the whole incorporate your own family life stuff was going to be tricky he knew. It wasn't that he had an awful life, not at all, he lived a pretty decent life; he lived with his adoptive father (whom everyone believed to be his real father) in the dojo where they both lived, he had been given his own apartment on the property when he turned 16, he had his bike he'd gotten from Franky and he had made some great friends after he moved to Grand Line. The problem lay in that he didn't have the stereotypical happy family life anymore, and had sworn not to talk about it to anyone, because it could get him in some serious shit if he did, well that's what he had been told anyway, and he didn't want to jeopardise it if it really was true. The fear of putting Koshiro in any more pain and suffering after all they had gone through wasn't something he was willing to do again; Koshiro had suffered enough, as had he himself. No, he had to build his so-called family life on a half truth; he could probably talk about his life as it was today, but what if they decided on their roles as siblings? He had never had any siblings so he didn't really know how to incorporate any of that and if they were to be spouses he didn't really think that would be a good idea either because then he had to think back on his past and he couldn't do that. Then what about parent and child? He hadn't had the best upbringing to say the least, and he didn't know shit about raising a child either. _Fuck this is gonna be hard..._

There was also the thing about the blond being nice to him, well he had kind of started that, but he didn't think Sanji would be nice to him back; maybe the blond was faking it? Sanji, he knew, was from the north-side so he shouldn't be nice to easterners and vice versa, not that he minded being nice to people in general, he only gave shit to people who deserved it, like those fucker kids who thought it was cool to brag about their gang being the best and shit. He hated when kids did that, it wasn't right by his books that little kids, some as young as 10-12 year olds, were being recruited as runners for the neighbouring gangs in their regions. People had even been trying to recruit him since he started high school, he'd never accepted though, he wasn't going to be a fucking runner for anyone, even Ace had tried to recruit him, but when he had declined Ace had dropped it saying it would be his funeral for not flying under anyone's flag. He didn't care though, he knew he could fend off anyone if they tried; he had enough confidence in his skills as a swordsman to not get beaten up by any thugs that got a bit rough when he declined their invite.

He knew Koshiro had been worried about him joining a gang when they moved to Grand Line even though Zoro was only about to turn 9 at the time, but Zoro had been outspoken about not wanting to serve under anyone, and that he'd always be his own master no matter what. Koshiro had only smiled at that, but Zoro had been true to his word and still held onto it, he would never bow his head for any scum bastards that thought they were better than anyone else. Ace had understood that early on, and held respect for Zoro in that sense, he had told Zoro that he hadn't been that fortunate when he was younger and had chosen a gang-life instead of death, and was now one of his leader's top henchmen, even had his own division, and would have told what his division did if it hadn't been for Zoro interrupting him telling him he really didn't want to know the rest.

The truth was that he already could imagine what they did, and he didn't want to know the details of it, for all he knew Ace could be a mass murderer, but it was something that wasn't spoken aloud about, everyone in Grand Line had some skeletons in their closet, and you didn't ask questions about it, mainly as a strategy to keep each other safe, so that if one should be caught in an interrogation they wouldn't know anything. But Zoro knew everyone suffered under it, not being able to tell anyone and vent out their frustration because it went against the underground code. Even he suffered under it, without even being in a gang, but he had done things too, things he couldn't talk about to anyone. It was a hard life, and he cursed the city for being so cold when it came to things like that, it just wasn't fair that little children had to grow up in an environment like that without the possibility to escape the horror of it.

He personally was happy to have grown up away from Grand Line, and in a different country as well, but still it hadn't been safe that either, and a lot of shit had happened before he and Koshiro had moved to the city in hopes that they'd be safe there. Zoro wanted to bash his head against his locker when those memories tried to surface in his mind, he wasn't going to think about it, it was supposed to be forgotten, and it wasn't supposed to ever have happened. He wanted to clutch his head and scream so that the flashing images that flew past him in his mind would stop, but he suppressed the urge and instead opened his locker and found the books he needed for his next class, business.

He had to use all his power to lock those memories away again, and so instead he drew up his conversation with the blond once more. There was something about him that didn't sit well with Zoro, not just the politeness that seemed a bit too forced, but the way the blond would space out from time to time, and the look on his face when he did, he couldn't quite explain it, but there was so many emotions within the blonds eyes, (no, his one eye, he had been covering the left side of his face with his hair), it had almost frightened him, seeing such emotions flicker through that one amazingly blue eye, and he had had to tear his eyes away from it and nudge the blond to snap him out of it. And then there was this tenseness in the blonds stand, like wasn't relaxing at all, it was like he was anticipating that Zoro would hurt him or something. Whatever was bothering the blond, it wasn't little, and somehow it was now bothering Zoro that he didn't know what it was. He had no reason to hurt the blond if it wasn't in self defence, though he doubted the blond would attack him. He had even sworn to Koshiro that he would never hurt anyone for personal gain. Well he was trying not to, but there was this thing he had to do later if he ever got the chance, if he was ever going to hurt anyone out of self gain it was when he would fight for the title of best swordsman in the world, and only then.

As he made his way over to the next classroom he knew he had to store those thoughts away, he had to have his concentration up if he was going to actually understand something of what Kalifa was talking about. He hated business really, but if he was ever going to take over the dojo in the future he knew it would be wise to have this type of knowledge, not because there was a lot of money to be made on the dojo, most kids that came there didn't have a lot of money so the yearly fee was almost nothing, some kids even stayed there a couple of nights a month for free if their parents couldn't take care of them. But shit like management and how to make even the smallest amount of income sufficient would come in handy later.

"Hey Zoro wait up"

"Hey Kohza, how's the lady treating yah?

"Oh, Vivi? She's a dream man, seriously she acts like this sweet nice girl when we're in public, but in bed ~"

"That's nice dude, don't need the details, thanks"

It wasn't that he didn't care, well in fact he didn't care about other people's love lives, but usually he would just let them go on, not today though, he really didn't feel like listening in on how Vivi was in bed. And he'd probably heard it before anyway, so he really didn't need the repetition of it.

"Well anyway we're doing fine, though I think she's having a hard time lately, don't know what it is though, she says its nothing, but I can tell yah know.."

"Yeah I know, but she'll tell you eventually, you know Vivi's not the type to stay silent if she thinks something's wrong"

"Yeah, can't help being worried though, I don't want to see anything bad happen to her"

"Yeah..."

Yes, he knew what Kohza was talking about, it was the same with the blond, but why did he have the feeling that he was hiding something really, really bad? He'd always trusted his instinct, and his instinct were screaming at him that clearly something was up with the guy, and that he should help, but help with what? Groaning he rubbed his temple, _fucking thoughts, go away dammit!_

"Eh Zoro you ok bro?"

"Yeah I'm fine, just a lot on my mind lately." Well, the last fucking fifteen minutes really, and he still had the thing about making a plausible lie for the whole project. Again the urge to clutch his hair and scream was strong, but he suppressed it once more. _When this day's over I'm gonna train till my mind stops this bullshit._

"Yeah we all have days like that, but gotta go I promised Nami I'd sit with her today, she said she'd fallen behind on the homework assignment, I think she just wants to fill me in on the latest gossip though."

"Yeah... Hey, wait, we had homework?" He couldn't believe he had missed out on homework again. It wasn't that he didn't want to do the homework really, he just sort of forgot about it, each time, and with Ace bringing booze and pot last night it was inevitable really.

"Um yeah... Nothing big though, just some minor stuff, she's not gonna grade it or anything. What? You forgot again?"

Scratching his neck he had to suppress a laugh, it shouldn't really come as a shock to anyone anymore, it was just that he was already in trouble for the whole bike thing this morning, and he really didn't need the extra hours of detention for that. _Shit, the detention, Sanji, fuck._

"Ah fuck, yeah I forgot again, well not like I'm not already in trouble, so what's another extra hours of detention really?" He had to joke this away, it wasn't like it hadn't happened before, actually it sort of happened weekly, but why did he have to go and do some shit today, and how the hell was he going to ask Igaram to postpone his detention until after he'd seen Sanji on the roof after school, he was so screwed.

"Well If you're gonna get your diploma you're gonna have to put some work into it, you know it's not good to have that on the record later. But hey, this is Grand Line we live in, nobody gives a fuck here anyway."

"Got a point there, but yeah, I should probably try to at least pay attention today."

He was trying way too hard to keep the humour in his voice, trying to make it sound like he really didn't give a shit about it, because it was only school, and his bad-boy attitude required that he didn't give a fuck, but silently he did, and he cursed himself for his own image sometimes. Simultaneously his mind was going in overdrive, he had to meet Sanji on the roof at 3, there was no way he was going to miss it, why he cared so much for seeing the blond again, he didn't know, he only knew that he had to be there, and that somehow he would hurt Sanji by not showing. Fuck him for making him think things like that, and how the fuck did he know that the blond would think like that anyway, he would probably be happy if he wasn't showing up, and what were the chances that the guy did show himself, there weren't any guarantee for that either. No, he had to stop thinking like that; Sanji had said he wanted to ace the project hadn't he? So he would be there. It was just up to himself to be there too. If he could just persuade Igaram that he had a meeting with another teacher after school, and that he needed to postpone the detention for 30 minutes, he'd have a shot at making it in time to meet up with Sanji and still get the detention done. Because there was no fucking way he'd have another Saturday filled with hours of detention.

While he had been having his inner debate on how to save himself out of the fucked up situation he'd gotten himself into, Kalifa had entered the classroom and was in the process of taking attendance. When his name was called he was quickly dragged back to reality, he cursed his treacherous mind for straying onto the path of the blond again, and he had had to use all his will power to keep his concentration on the subject of business for the rest of the class. He had of course gotten another detention for not doing his homework. Kalfia hadn't been happy about it to say the least, but said she hadn't expected anything else from him. She had almost been on the verge of debating if there really was any use of sending him to detention at all, seeing as it did nothing more than give Igaram a headache and a lot more paperwork to deal with, and probably with the thought and satisfaction of giving Igaram a lot more work to do she smiled and gave him a detention anyway.

When the class ended he was sure it had been the longest 45 minutes of his life. He had, with some difficulty, managed to pay attention for the most part of the time, and even understood most of what they were going through. It was as Kohza had said, only minor stuff, and he had been sure to write down the homework for tomorrow's class when Kalifa had written it on the blackboard, he was at least going to try and do it this time.

Catching up to Kohza and Nami on their way out, he couldn't fail to notice the dark aura hanging over them both. Nudging Kohza lightly in the shoulder he sent him a questioning look, just what the hell had gone down between them during class to make them both this pissed? Kohza just shrugged and shook his head. Well that didn't bode well, he definitely had to get the details later. Kohza, he presumed, was most likely keeping his mouth shut until they could get away from the sea-witch. He had to smile when he thought about the best fitting nickname he'd given anyone; sea-witch, it was the most accurate description he could think of when thinking about Nami, the girl was obsessed with the ocean, always going on about wanting to be a navigator when she got older, and she truly was a witch when it came to everything else, especially when it came to money. Zoro had to suppress a shudder when he thought about the time he'd asked to borrow some change for food in the cafeteria, and even after he had paid it all back to her she still claimed that he owned her more, and that he had forgot about the interest that followed with a loan. _That witch._

They found the rest of their friends at their normal table in the cafeteria. Looking around they really were an odd mix of people, most were from different gangs around the east-side, so many of them really should have been rivals, never the less they'd somehow managed to become friends in spite of the underground rules. Robin was as usual engrossed in a book, Ace was in the middle of explaining some advanced chemistry shit he'd apparently picked up during class to Usopp, Kaya, Chopper and Franky, who'd just stopped by after giving his weekly lecture on technology. Kaya was sitting on Usopps lap as usual, and as by a miracle Luffy was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Robin, where's Luffy? I haven't seen, nor heard him all day"

"Ah, Luffy said he was going to find someone and ran off before any of us had the chance to ask who he was looking for, he'll probably be back when he gets hungry though." She chuckled in her usual laugh.

"Yeah I bet he does" Though he found it rather odd that Luffy had just run off without as much of a word about what he was doing, it wasn't like him to just disappear, especially around meal times, that kid could seriously eat for six people alone if he was given the chance.

Fishing out some change from his pocket he made his way over to the food line, Teracotta was serving the usual grub he presumed, not that he cared, it was going to be a long day and he needed the energy if he was going to meet with Sanji and have his detention later. And on the thought of the blond he suddenly caught sight of him on top of the stairs making his way, he imagined, up to the roof. Zoro couldn't help but notice the stiffness in the blonds walk as he made his way to the top of the stairs and along the corridor. It wasn't noticeable to a normal person really, but he'd been trained to watch for stuff like that in others since he started at Koshiros dojo back when he was 4, it had just become a bit of a habit to do it on everyone now really. Though it bothered him slightly that he had watched the blond in that way now. Sanji had seemed almost wounded, but why would he have been wounded? Wasn't the guy supposed to be the son of the north's leader or something? So nobody should even dare touch his precious ass, especially if they valued their life. Something was definitely off, and it annoyed him even more that he wanted to find out what it was. This was Grand Line for fucks sake; you didn't pry into other people's business, let alone a guy from the north-side, who probably had a lot more skeletons in the closet than anyone could imagine.

"Yo Zoro, Laki and Wiper was just over and the Shandians are talking about throwing the yearly Halloween party on Upper Yard this time, and they're inviting people from neighbouring gangs, you in?" Ace called over to him as he was making his way over to them again, grin wide as a Cheshire cat.

Head still on the blond and what he'd noticed about him Zoro just vaguely caught what Ace was talking about, shaking his head he sat down. "Upper Yard, isn't that off limits to civilians, and especially to the Shandians?" If he wasn't mistaking, Skypiea, a little town a few miles outside of the east-side had been terrorized by a little gang who apparently thought they owned the whole city and had especially claimed ownership over a place called Upper Yard, nobody knew why though.

"It was, but someone apparently got that bastard Enel good, so the property has been made into some sort of park area now, donno exactly, but the Mayor of Skypia apparently announced it last week according to Wiper."

"Sweet, yeah I'm in" Some guy that must have been, to take out a guy like that, and presumably his whole gang too, if they didn't just flee though. Some gang members did that he knew; ran away when their boss was challenged or defeated, fucking pansies. He would never run away if any of his friends were caught in a difficult fight, and he'd probably see red and most likely kill someone if any of his friends ever got defeated or killed. Though he doubted that would ever happen, most of his friends knew how to fight; even poor scrawny Usopp could defend himself if it came down to it, and to be honest the thought of any of them losing to anyone was just hilarious.

"Anyone know who the guy was?"

"Nah, Laki said that it had just happened one night without anyone hearing anything, apparently the dude had beat Enel up good and chained him and his gang to the fence outside of their police station with a note of all of their crimes stapled to his chest, by my books that guys a hero."

"Wow, yeah he definitely is."

"Who's what?" Robin had just peaked up from her book and seemed rather interested on what they were talking about.

"That guy that beat up Enel, you know the guy that thought he owned Skypiea and shit, he's gotta be some sort of a hero." Ace seemed ecstatic that more people found it interesting apparently, his grin had even grown bigger it seemed, how he was able to smile so wide was beyond Zoro, and he was sure that if Ace was to smile any more his head would split in two. While that sight was rather comical in his head, he couldn't help but think that a live view of it wouldn't be as funny.

"Oh yeah, I heard about that, apparently there were no witnesses and just a note hanging on Enel's chest when the police found them in the morning. I wonder who it is though, it's all rather mysterious." Robin put a finger to her cheek as she often did when she was thinking hard about something. She was probably trying to figure out if there were some connections to other things as to help with figuring out who this mystery hero was. That was something Zoro really admired about Robin, her insight and perception of things were remarkable, and how she was able to find links between things that the normal person would never have believed to be linked in the first place. She was also rather good at cracking codes he'd discovered some time back.

When Ace and Robin had attracted the attention of the others who were also eager to discuss the mystery hero, Zoro zoned out and decided it was time for a nap, leaning back in the chair he closed his eyes and fell again into the inner debate he'd been having since home-ec; that damn project, Sanji and how he was going to get Igaram to postpone his detention.


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors note:** I'm having writers block again, so there might take more than a month to post chapter 6, but I'll trying as hard as I can to not let it go a year before updating again. Also school is killing me, and I really need to focus on passing my exams this semester, so I might not have time to write as much as I want to the coming months.

As always please review :) Even though I don't always answer you, I'm really happy for your comments!

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><p>#5<p>

Sanji was pacing, a cig in between his lips and his hand were clenching and unclenching. Iva was a bastard, a damn shitty bastard. How could he give them such a fucking horrible project? There was no way in hell he was able to pull of any believable lie the green haired bastard wouldn't be able to see through.

He'd gone through everything of what Iva had said about the project, about the roles they were supposed to take, about the incorporation of their own family life and about how many hours they were required to have together acting out those roles. Just how the fuck was he going to be able to keep up such a shitty performance over 45 fucking hours and over four fucking weeks? The only reason people still believed he had a perfect life was because he never let people into his personal space for longer periods of time, and now that he had to be in the company of one single person over such a endlessly long period of time, it was nothing short of torture. And seriously there was no freaking way he'd be able to fool the guy that long, even if Zoro by some miracle was partially brain-dead, which he highly doubted anyway. Lying and saying he got in a fight only lasted so long, and by the way his father had been going at him for the past several weeks he couldn't really lie and say he got in a fight every day either. Though this was Grand Line and people were getting into fights almost daily, he doubted that Zoro would believe that he did that, he probably knew who his father was; he'd be an idiot if he didn't. So he should also know that you didn't lay a hand on other people's properties. Fuck he hated to be referred to as his father's property, but that was what he was, and there was really no denying that fact. Anyway Zoro should know that messing with him was like buying your own personal ticket on the next train to hell, not that Sanji thought his father actually cared if his son got beat up by anyone, it was just another way to show people how powerful he was, and that his stuff shouldn't be touched by anyone other than him and his gang.

But there had to be some way he could at least come off as slightly normal in this situation, taking into account that they lived in Grand Line and that he was the son of a bastard right? He was an only child, and that wasn't anything abnormal really, so that was probably ok to mention, but should he mention anything about his mother? He didn't know anything about her, not her name or what she looked like at all. He'd asked his father about it when he was younger, and got a punch in the face for it and was told to never ask something like that ever again. So he couldn't really say anything about her really, so was it even worth mentioning? Probably not, but what if Zoro decided to ask about it, what should he say then? He could probably say that he didn't know and leave it at that. It wasn't like he was going to pry into Zoros life, so why should Zoro pry into his anyway. And they both knew the underground codes by heart he reckoned, so prying into other people's lives was a no-no because it could put people in more danger if they did.

So what could they put into the project when the codes prevented them from sharing information that could put each other in danger later? Usually talking about their past didn't hurt them too much, but in his case he couldn't really talk about his past, not because he wasn't allowed, but because it was too painful to actually tell someone about it and he had an image to uphold too. So talking about his past was the same as showing his weakest side to someone and he wasn't weak damn-it.

His hands had started to shake from the rage that was slowly building inside him; he cursed himself for his own lack of control and for how weak he felt by thinking of his past. He didn't want to feel so utterly weak, but he was, and there was nothing he could to do about it, no matter how much he trained he was just never able to fight back. He blindly followed the orders his father gave him, he took every hit, every kick and all the verbal abuse and carried on, spread his legs and took it whenever he was ordered to do so without any complaint. It was disgusting that it had come to that, that he had become so weak he'd even lost his voice against the bastard. But there was just no way to fight back without his father becoming even more violent, so maybe it was that he hoped his father would go easy on him if he was obedient, that the beatings wouldn't be as bad if he allowed his father to have his way with him. He didn't know if it was true or not, but he preferred not to know. He really didn't want to figure out if his father could become more violent against him than he already was. And what his father was doing to him now wasn't nearly as bad as stuff he had done to him in the past, and that was stuff he really wished he could forget and not have nightmares of every night. He had to suppress another shudder as those thoughts tried to emerge yet again.

He had to get a grip now, there weren't a lot of time until lunch was over and then it was only a short while until he was meeting Zoro on the roof, if the bastard showed at all that is. A part of him secretly hoped that he wouldn't, but another part of him knew that he had put a lot of faith in Zoro asking him to meet him. It wasn't something he'd ever asked of someone before, and a tiny part of him hoped Zoro wouldn't betray that little trust he'd given him. He knew that if Zoro didn't show it shouldn't count as anything really, it was a normal occurrence that people stood him up, so he should be expecting it, but there had been something about Zoro, something that had made him want to trust that he would keep his word. He didn't know how to explain it really, and he also knew he shouldn't trust Zoro in any way; the guy was from the east-side for fucks sake. He was also the schools trouble maker who on a regular basis beat up other kids and was bithchy towards everyone outside of their turf. There was absolutely no way he could trust the guy in any way possible, and yet a part of him wanted to trust him, had felt that he could be trusted somehow, but how and why was still a mystery to him.

Spitting out his half spent, now ruined cigarette, he light up a new one. Fuck it, I'll just play my cards close to myself and take it as it comes. Because there's absolutely no way I'll be able to try and make up a lie that'll last over four weeks by the end of the day. And if Zoro starts to pry into my life I'll just have to kick him and tell him to mind his own business. He nodded his head in agreement with himself; it was probably the best solution to the problem, meet it head on instead of trying to plan something out that was bound to go wrong.

"Heeeeeeey Saaaaaanji"

A kid was flying towards him, not running or walking, but fucking flying. A certain freshman who had a preference of wearing capri-pants and sandals no matter how cold it got and with a strawhat hanging on his back. Yes, the little kid was Luffy D. Monkey, a kid with so much energy it was almost scary. And now that bundle of energy was flying directly towards him, and seeing the speed he was going in he was bound to crash directly into him, fuck this was gonna hurt.

"Luffy don't you DARE fly into me again! If you do I won't bring you any bento for the whole next month!"

Luffy as it looked like, turned midair and crashed into the pavement on Sanji's right side, rolling a couple of feet until he stopped face planted into the dirt. Not that that stopped him any, in a second he was up again and bouncing at Sanjis side like a puppy.

"Sorry Luffy I haven't brought you anything to day, and we didn't make anything in home-ec either, so I'll bring you something tomorrow or next week ok?"

"Aw maaan, I've been looking for you everywhere, and now there's no food." Luffy was pouting, just like Sanji had expected him to do, it wasn't anything unusual really, and he should have remembered that Luffy usually found him during lunch hours to steal his bento, not that Sanji had minded when it had happened, he loved the look on people's faced when they ate his food and appreciated it. The look of pure joy in their faces was what he lived for, and what he truly felt like he would want to do for the rest of his life.

"No I'm sorry Luffy, no food today, but if you hurry you can still get something in the cantina before lunch hour is over."

"But Terracottas food isn't as good as yours, well its good but yours is better, and she just has the same stuff every day, it's boring."

Sanji was taken slightly aback, Luffy said that food was boring, he had to be sick, and maybe he had a fever or something. Luffy, the kid who he thought didn't even taste the food he ate, thought that food made by someone else was boring. He didn't know if he should feel flattered by it or concerned for Luffys mental health.

"Oh, well I'm sorry I don't have anything for you today Luffy, and we don't have time to go down to the kitchens to get something either. Sorry. And anyway doesn't your dearest Nami wonder where her boyfriend is?"

"Nami? Well I don't know, she hadn't come to the cantina yet when I went to look for you."

"What? You just left before you even saw your beautiful flower? Luffy a gentleman always waits for his maiden to arrive before he leaves her side. Now go find her you idiot, I'm sure she's feeling very lonely at the moment! If she'd been my girlfriend I'd never leave her side and always given her what she wanted."

"Oh, well I was hungry, and then I remembered you had home-ec on Thursdays and so I thought I'd find you so you could feed me. And Nami's a strong woman she can take care of herself. And now that you don't have any food, and I'm really getting hungry I should probably go ask Ace for some money, cya Sanji."

And just like he appeared out of nowhere he flew off again, leaving no trace he'd ever been there except for the trail he'd left on the pavement.

Sighing, Sanji knew he had pushed Luffy away, it wasn't that he didn't want him there, in fact he had wished Luffy had stayed a little longer, it was just that his head was in such a state that he felt it best to be left alone. And when he had thought of dear Nami, he couldn't help himself to scold Luffy for being too carefree when it came to how he treated his lady. He couldn't see what she saw in Luffy, but he guessed it was that he could make her laugh, and that was something he could never do for her in the same way. Luffys carefreeness was something he envied the boy, but Luffy hadn't had it as rough as most of the kids in the city. He, as Sanji had found out, didn't live in any of the cities gang-areas, and didn't fly under anyone's colour; he was to say the least, free.

As the school bell rang, he took his death stick and grounded it into the sole of his shoe and found his way down to his next class, he knew he had to control his thoughts and emotions now, making it seem as he didn't have a care in the world, and that he wasn't hurt in any way. Walking normally, and ignoring the slight pain in his lower region and in his ribs, smiling at the girls he went past and raised his head and walked with every ounce of confidence as he went past the guys. It was routine, you didn't show weakness, ever, if you didn't want to get jumped.

The rest of the classes were boring though, he took notes and paid half an ear to the lecture, the rest of his mind was on the project and Zoro. All the questions that had been running through his head all day had free reign to torture him, and he didn't stop them. Not that he could if he had wanted to either, so he just let them take him away to the darkest places in his mind, opening doors that had been closed for several years. Things that had happened during his childhood that he thought he'd locked away and nearly forgotten were allowed to come back with full force. And still the questions about what were to happen later swirled together with everything else.

~~~~~O~o~O~~~~~

Zoro had awoken a little before the bell for his next class rang, and had immediately remembered that he had to go and ask Igaram to postpone his detention later. So saying goodbye to the rest of the gang, he got on his way.

Igaram had not been pleased by the request, but had in the end agreed to postpone the detention by 30 minutes, if Zoro promised not to get anymore detentions that week. He had said he would try, but he couldn't promise anything, and again tried to argue that he was being treated a bit unfair by some of the teachers. Many of the detentions wasn't even qualified to be given a detention for anyways, like for example slamming his locker door a bit too hard, which yes had happened the week before.

Igaram had to agree that that didn't qualify for a detention alone, but Zoro's record leading up to that incident had been enough to give him one. It was the combined little things that he did that went against school regulations that in the end gave him detentions. Today as Igaram read from the reports was no different; he, Mr. Portgas and Miss Nico was given a mark for driving above speed limits within school grounds, then he was reported sleeping in Mr. Ivankov's class, and in Miss Kalifa's class he had forgotten to do his homework and he hadn't been paying attention.

Zoro nodded to all of them to indicate that the observations was correct, but when Kalifa had written that he hadn't paid attention, he snapped. He had paid attention, even answered her when he was asked some question, and yes he had gotten them right. How she could say he didn't pay attention was probably her way of payback, she was a nasty piece of shit that's what she was. Igaram said that there was nothing he could do about that comment, but that he would talk to Kalifa about it later in the staff meeting after school.

As Zoro turned to leave as the bell rang, Igaram caught his sleeve.

"Zoro, you're a good kid, try to act more responsibly, at least try not to do anything more today."

"I'll try"

He had to jog over to his next class, he knew Jinbe would be pissed at him for it, but at least Igaram had given him a late-slip to give to the man. Jinbe was his Japanese teacher, and as there weren't many students taking his course this year, no one could really slip in at the last minute without being noticed in this class.

He checked his phone as he was running; it was only 12.20 which was only five minutes late, he could live with that. Skidding to a halt outside the classroom door, he checked that everything was as it should look, not knowing Sanji had done the same thing earlier that morning, knocked on the door and entered.

Jimbe had been pissed, probably thinking Zoro had been up to no good as usual, but was pleasantly surprised when Zoro had handed him the late-slip from Igaram. He had let the issue slide to Zoro's delight, he didn't want to tell Jimbe why he had been late, knowing Ace and Marco, who also took that class, would be listening into their conversation.

As he went over to his desk he thought that Japanese was actually one of his favourite subjects, apart from P.E. and Martial Arts when he got to practice his kendo. Being of Japanese descent and having been thought Japanese since he was a kid, and still spoke Japanese with Koshiro when they were at home, it was safe to say he was the best in class. It also made him feel somewhat closer to the home he lost so many years ago. He had been worried that moving to a country where they only talked English; he would lose his connection to his home, but as he had started high school and found out they thought Japanese there, he had, to say the least been ecstatic. Ace had only taken the subject so that he and Zoro could actually have some classes together, not that it bothered Zoro the slightest, he was glad that Ace had done it, even though it proved to be a pain in the ass sometimes as Ace needed his help to study a lot of the time.

Ace was taking advanced classes in math, chemistry and physics, so he really didn't have the time to study the minor classes as much, and therefore needed Zoro's help with some of the others so he wouldn't fall behind. It was a win-win situation really, as Zoro a lot of the time needed Ace's help in return with subjects he was struggling with.

Neither of them really cared about getting the papers from school, as it wouldn't be worth shit in Grand Line anyways. It was the knowledge they got from the classes later that would be valuable to them really. So helping each other out was also a way to encourage and remind themselves that they went to school for a purpose, not because it was obligatory.

As he sat down, Ace nudged him slightly, bringing him out of his thoughts completely.

"Hey man, you just disappeared after lunch, did you get lost or something?"

He had expected it, it wasn't really like him to just disappear like that, so naturally there would be questions about it, but telling Ace that he had talked to Igaram wouldn't really fit the bad-boy attitude he wore at school, and would probably intrigue Ace to ask him about why he'd gone there in the first place. That would in turn make him tell Ace about postponing his detention, and telling him about his and Sanji's agreement to meet after school. And telling Ace that he was meeting with the prince of the North, didn't really sound too good in his ears right now. So he did the most natural thing in this situation, give a half lie.

"No! I just had some shit I needed to fix before class, did you miss me?"

"Ha! Like I would ever miss your sorry ass, but seriously it's not like you to just disappear like that, anyways you still on for the Halloween party next month right?"

"I'll have to talk to Sensei about it, but sign me up; I'll let you know if I'm free when we're getting closer to end of October."

"Awesome, I'll let Laki or Viper know you're in later then."

After that, his classes went on as normal. But when the clock started counting down to 2.45pm he couldn't help losing his concentration, even when he had been having P.E. for the last two periods, which he loved. It had really helped that Kaku had agreed to let him use the gym where he could train as much as he wanted. His thoughts about the meeting with Sanji had really frustrated him, not the meeting exactly, but what they were going to discuss. The project was a cruel one, that much was for certain, a lot of the kids didn't have good backgrounds at all, some harsher that others, so how Iva expected people to cope with the project he didn't know. All he knew was that he was having a shit hard time with the whole thing.

When he lost count on his hand-stand push ups for what seemed like the tenth time he gave up, and stalked off to the showers. He wasn't exactly nervous meeting Sanji, but he had this nagging feeling that this was going to be tougher than anything he'd had to do in school so far.

~~~~~O~o~O~~~~~

Sanji was glad to have his last period free this day. Even though the teachers had been clear that it was not a free period, but a self-study period, he couldn't bring himself to care about that now, and besides this was sort of like studying. He was thinking about that damned project and in his mind that was studying.

He had been thinking that he maybe should have a plan ready if there came a time he would need a good lie to cover up how his life really was, but had in the end argued his way out of it, seeing as there really was no point in making up lies that were bound to fail miserably later anyways. He would just have to avoid answering if there ever came a time where uncomfortable things were brought up. Still there was this feeling that he should have an escape route just in case, but the more he thought of it the more he was making himself sure that he didn't need one. There was no way either of them would ask questions that both of them knew they couldn't answer. He also knew that everyone in Grand Line had some shitty stuff in their past that wasn't asked about or talked about to anyone, so why should either of them bring up stuff that could harm any of them. He wasn't sure what flag Zoro flew under or if he flew under anyone's flag at all, but he knew the guy lived in the East territory, and so he should know the underground codes about not talking about things that could harm another.

While he had been in deep thought over what to do he had found his way up to the roof, he didn't really know how he'd gotten there, but he figured that it didn't matter. He'd walked that route so many times now; it was only natural that he ended up there. And also he was in desperate need of a cigarette. All the memories that had been resurfacing the last couple of hours had made him so fucking agitated and stressed out he really didn't know what to do anymore. He had so many times just wanted to bang his head against the desk or rip his hair out; he was almost impressed by his own self-restraint. Of course it had made him lose focus on what had gone on in his Italian and English lessons, and he knew both Inazuma and Beckman had been rather disappointed with him, but it couldn't be helped. He was just too far gone into himself to even care about it right now.

As he clicked his lighter and inhaled the sweetness of his cigarette he found it didn't help as much as he had hoped, but it took the edge of and that was enough for now. Putting his lighter back in his pocket he picked up his pocket-watch, 2.35pm, well he had some time to kill, and not knowing what to do besides going crazy he picked up his bag and found his cook-book in making and thought about maybe thinking up some new recipes he could try out when he got to work later. Just as he was about to start putting down what he thought would be a new twist to one of his earlier creations his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He didn't really get texts at this time of the day; both Zeff and his father knew he was at school so why should anyone message him now? On looking at his phone an ice cold chill ran down his spine, this couldn't be happening, not now.

/_Work tonight, 10.00pm/_

He read the text over and over again, not really seeing what was there but knowing what it meant so well that it hurt. Why did this have to happen to him today? I just wasn't fair. He had slid to the ground with his back against the wall, his legs finally giving way from under him. There was nothing he could do now to keep his emotions at bay, with everything that had happened during the day and now this. It was just too much to handle right now. He just wanted to curl up, hide and cry so fucking bad it hurt. It hurt because he knew what was coming and there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening, and it made him feel so utterly weak. Moving his knees up to his face he wrapped his arms around them and held onto them like a life line. His whole body shook as his emotions wrecked havoc inside him, he hadn't felt so powerless, little and weak for a long time, but he knew it had only been a matter of time before things became too much for him again.

He didn't know how long he sat like that, but he suddenly remembered that he was up there because he was meeting with Zoro at 3pm. As quickly as he could he fished his clock out again, 2.58pm. "Shit", there was no time to lose, that bastard could be there any minute and here he was hiding away like a little kid. He gathered up his things and checked his face in a little mirror he always had with him to see if he had smudged his make-up or worse, looked like he had cried, he had neither to his immediate relief. Taking his bag with him over to the edge of the roof he sat down, he had to make sure he looked normal again, and so he fished out another cigarette, light it and sat back to at least try and relax until Zoro showed up.

That was easier said than done, Zoro had been late, and for every minute he was late Sanji had grown more and more afraid that the guy had stood him up. When a panting Zoro finally showed up Sanji didn't know how to react, he was to say the least shocked. For as longs as he could remember no one had shown up when he had asked them to meet him, but this guy, he did.


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors note: **Ok, this chapter is shit. I've tried to write it several times, but it just ends up being this messed up thing with OOCness and what not. So I'm apologizing in advance for anyone who's still reading this. I might re-write it some time, as I want to do with all of the other chapters I've written, but we'll see what happens. It is also pretty short and not very eventful, but it has to be that way, for the story to move on in the direction I want it to.

Also, I'm sooooo sorry for keeping you waiting this long for this chapter, I know I promised I wouldn't let you wait forever for chapters anymore, but my life keeps screwing me over, so bare with me ok. I'll try posting the next chap sometime this spring and then maybe some more during the summer.

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><p>#6<p>

"Hey man, sorry I'm late"

He really had tried to get to the roof on time, but as he was on his way out Kaku had called him out wanting to talk about what was going on. He had said it was nothing, which of course Kaku hadn't believed, so he had ended up saying that he just had a lot of shit on his mind at the moment, which was the truth. Kaku hadn't been exactly pleased with that answer either, but probably knew enough of what was going on in the east right now to let it be, so instead of arguing further, he had told Zoro that if he ever needed to talk he knew where to find him.

Kaku, as Zoro had found out was actually one of his teachers who knew enough of what was going on out on the streets to let a lot of the bad shit he got himself into at school just slide. He did however regularly talk to Zoro when he noticed something was off with him. Today was no exception. So Zoro had nodded and said that if things got shittier he would come by then, and had so run off to meet Sanji, a bit behind schedule, which was why he had ran the whole way to the roof and ended up five minutes late. As he was running all the way he had hoped that Sanji was still there, and had almost sighed with relief when he found him sitting by the wall with a cigarette in his mouth looking totally carefree. He almost envied the guy for being able to look so chilled out, when he was having a fucking hard time with everything.

Sanji cocked his head in his direction "Yo, yourself. I'm impressed; you actually managed to get here, almost on time" he jeered.

"Oy! I was gonna be here on time hadn't it been for a damned teacher wanting a word before I left class." He had to play this one of, he had a reputation to uphold here, and saying he had a chat with Kaku didn't sound right, so again he went into his bad-boy personality, it was like he had multiple-personalities he could actually control.

"So you were up to no good again," Sanji took a good inhale from his death stick, and blew the smoke out slowly, "well I couldn't expect anything else really."

Was the bastard trying to insult him? Seriously, he didn't get into that much trouble, did he? "No, I didn't get into any trouble, again. Why the fuck does everybody think that I've always done something bad when I talk to a teacher?"

"Well sorry to inform you grass-head, but you do know that you have a major reputation for being this schools biggest troublemaker right?"

"Excuse me? What the fuck did you just call me curly?!"

"Geez, are you that slow, you fucking moss ball, and the fuck you calling me curly for?"

"HaHa very funny, and yeah, curly, cause you know that eyebrow of yours, shouldn't that be studied in a laboratory or something?" So long trying to be nice, if the idiot wanted a fight he'd fucking get one.

"Says the guy who dyes his hair green, why the fuck do you do that anyway? It looks fucking ridiculous!"

"I don't dye it! It's natural you moron!"

They were standing nose to nose now; how that had happened Zoro didn't know. One minute they were staying a few feet apart, well Sanji had been sitting against the wall, and the next they were like this. He could even feel the cigarette smoke surrounding them. Sanji's eyes had trailed to his hair, disbelieving what Zoro just said no doubt.

As they both realised how close they were staying they took a step back, re-establishing some sense of personal space between themselves again.

"Yeah sure that's not dyed" The sarcasm was literally dripping from his lips. "Whatever, let's do this shit, I've got work in an hour." And just like that both forgot about their argument, the thought of the project felt like being pierced by a shard of ice, and definitely set a damper on the heated moment.

When he'd cooled down he shot a look over in Sanji's direction, "Fine whatever, have you given a thought of what roles we're gonna take?" He had tried thinking of it, but he hadn't come up with a good solution. Maybe the sibling thing, but he had to check with blondie first.

"Well I've tried thinking of it, but neither seems like a good option. The closest I've come is the sibling thing, but I'm an only child, so I don't know how siblings act. How about you, got a better idea?"

"I was thinking the sibling thing too, but I'm an only child as well, so I wouldn't know anything about that either. But what I do know is that I'm not up for being spouses, or parent and child for that matter. Mainly because I can't picture us being lovely-dovely towards each other and the parent and child thing just sounds ludicrous in my mind."

"So siblings it is then, you know any siblings we can mimic?" Sanji was tapping his fingers against his temple, probably in deep thought trying to think of someone they could mimic or use as a reference point.

"Well Ace and Luffy are the only ones I know personally, but they're um, weird."

"HAHA, I know right, there's no way in hell I could try and mimic Luffy in a million years!"

"Yeah, wait you know Luffy?"

"Um yeah, he keeps coming to me for food during lunch, he's a sweet kid and all, but he can be a bit over enthusiastic at times."

"So that's why he'll suddenly disappear during lunch, no wonder he never tells us where he's going."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ah, well Luffy might live in Alubarna, but he knows a lot about what's going down on the sides, and you being from the north and us being mostly from the east, let's just say that he knows when to keep his mouth shut."

So the blond knew Luffy, it didn't really come as a surprise to him; Luffy had this incredible knack of becoming friends with all sorts of weird people, either that or being hated by them. He could become any ones ally and not even realize it himself. It was a rare gift in Grand Line, not many could become friends with people from all sides of the city.

Sanji nodded, "Yeah, he acts like a seven year old, but with some things it's like he's wise beyond his years or something." Then he shook his head in resignation, "Anyway, I'm not going to mimic them, they're crazy!"

Zoro nodded and agreed to that, and then he sat down with his back against the wall, thinking about what they were going to do now. Neither had any knowledge of how it was to be siblings, except for what they had observed of Ace and Luffy's behaviour towards each other, and that would only end in disaster. He did feel like his friends were sort of like his family, his nakama, but he didn't know if that qualified as being siblings or not. He rubbed his temple and groaned. Why should this be so fucking hard? Fucking bitch ass project.

Sanji who had sat down too, at a safe distance from Zoro, was deep in his own thoughts as well, not knowing what was safe to say and not. He light up another cigarette and kept thinking about the project, could it even be done without anyone getting hurt in the process? And by anyone he was thinking of himself, he was the one who had the most to lose in all of this, wasn't he?

"I have no fucking clue of how we're gonna do this, but one thing is certain about this project, we have to spend time together to manage the hour achievement, and I guess we take it from there." Sanji mused aloud, not really aware he was speaking.

Zoro looked at him, "You have a point there" then back at the sky. "We'll meet up when we can, and see what happens after that." Spending time with Sanji could become a serious problem he knew that. If anyone found out about it he'd be in deep shit, not that he already was, Sanji was from the North for fucks sake. But just the possibility of anyone, even Luffy finding out about this, Ace would find out and then probably behead him or something. He could be putting his entire life on the line with this fucking project, was it even worth the risk? Fuck, he didn't know anymore, but there wasn't much else to do now, he would have to just follow through and keep his head down, and if it came to it, take the consequences later.

Sanji flinched when Zoro had answered his seemingly quiet musings to himself, not really expecting to be heard at all. But he agreed with himself, it was the best plan they had now. They didn't know each other, and as much as Sanji hoped it would remain like that, he knew he didn't have a choice but to eventually get to know the other guy. What he knew was going to be hard, especially over time, was not letting Zoro see how much pain he was constantly in. Which as of now was his biggest fear, because if people knew he were in pain, there would be a shit load of questions, questions he wasn't ready to answer.

They sat in silence for a while after that, it wasn't awkward or anything, it was actually quite comfortable. Neither wanting to break the silence and it was mostly because both were so lost in their own thoughts. Zoro for his sake was trying hard not to let old memories stir up again, as they had been doing all day since he got the project. For Sanji it became a battle against his emotions not to have a break down again, thinking of what was going to happen later when he got home.

After a while Zoro started thinking about what he had observed of the blond earlier, there were a lot of questions he wanted to ask him, but he'd just met the guy, and this wasn't something you could just ask on a whim, he knew that. What really annoyed him though was that he wanted to know at all, and it wasn't any of his business what the guy was up to. "Hey..." There was however some things wanted answers to.

Sanji who had been so lost in his thoughts about how he was going to survive this night, had barely heard him, but registered that he was being spoken to, "Hmm, you say anything?"

"Um yeah, since we're doing this project and all you know, we should probably, um... try to get to know each other a bit more, you know trivial stuff that won't come back and bite us later or something..." He trailed of, he should have thought this through some more, fuck he'd never been good with articulating sentences and stuff, now he just sounded like an idiot.

Sanji was sure he had visibly paled when Zoro said get to know each other, he was sure that was the moment where the guy would start asking questions he didn't know he could answer, but as he trailed of he noticed that Zoro was just as unsure about all of this as he was. It wouldn't hurt telling him trivial things right, as long as they laid down some ground rules first, would it? "Oh, Yeah... I guess that's true, as long as we're both clear on dropping a subject if it can't be talked about or whatever."

"Fine by me, this is Grand Line after all, so shall we have five questions?"

"Five questions?" Sanji laughed, why didn't that surprise him? "Um, sure why not, you can start and we'll take turns."

Zoro hadn't expected Sanji to laugh at that, it didn't offend him which he found strange, but he guessed it was because he found it to be a more pleasant sound than he had imagined, and for some reason he realized that this wasn't something the blond did often.

Still a bit stunned by the sudden show of emotion from Sanji, Zoro tried to gather his thoughts in order to figure out a question, "Um ok, so what job do you have after school?" Zoro didn't know why he wanted to know that, but it was the first thing he could think of that was probably safe.

"I work as a chef at a restaurant," Sanji was pleasantly surprised by the question, he had expected something else, and on the thought of work he was suddenly reminded that his shift started at 4, he was going to be in deep trouble if he were late "Shit what time is it?" He frantically searched for his pocket watch, when he managed to get it out of his pocket it read 3:40pm. "Shit, Shit, Shit Zeff is gonna kill me."

Zoro was also quick to act as he realized he was late too, "Fuck, Igaram is going to kill me." How had he managed to lose track of time like this? This wasn't like him at all.

They got their stuff together and started to hurry down to the school yard, Zoro was going to the detention hall and Sanji to the parking lot, which was in the same direction thankfully. As they walked quickly down the stairs Sanji turned his head towards Zoro, "So when are we meeting up again?"

Zoro barely caught what was being said; his mind was racing trying to figure out a plausible lie for being late, but failing miserably. "Um I'll meet you on the roof tomorrow at lunch or something, we can try and piece together a better plan then."

Sanji nodded "Sound good, cya then."

"Yeah, cya"

Zoro tried to ignore the fact that Sanji seemed to be in a lot of pain as they went their separate ways, as he had more pressing matters to focus on right now, like his fucking detention, and how to explain why he was late. It didn't even cross his mind to bolt out of there and skip it totally, he'd given a promise for fucks sake, and he hated to break them, no matter how trivial or annoying they seemed. He also had to message Koshiro that he would be late for the session with the kids, damn another promise broken there.

So taking out his phone and texted, /_got detention, gonna be home a bit late_/ while he half walked, half ran to the detention hall wondering who else was there today.


	7. Chapter 7

**Authors note: **So I had planned on waiting to post this, but seeing as I'm going away soon, and won't be able to upload anything more for a while, I thought I should leave you with this as a going away present. The story will be on hiatus for a while after this, and I'm sorry about that. Just know that I will try to continue writing while I'm away, and then post when I'm back.

As always, reviews are welcomed =)

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><p># 7<p>

Work had been hectic to say the least. Zeff had yelled at him for being late, and had then proceeded to kick him across the room, not that it wasn't normal, but damn it had hurt like a bitch. He had then been given a ton of work, being both chef and waiter the entire night. He had welcomed the work load though, as it kept his mind of what had gone down at school with Zoro and the project earlier, and had also kept his mind of what was to come later.

It wasn't until now that he sat on his bed, tired as fuck, with a piece of paper with addresses on, that he thought about what a messed up life he really had. But he didn't have time to be tired, he had work to do, and he needed to steel himself for it. He just hoped he would be done in time to actually get some sleep before school tomorrow.

So changing out of his school clothes into what his father had told him to wear for the night, he got himself ready to leave. As he left his bedroom his father looked at him, nodded and let him past to the hallway. "Don't fuck up this time, you know I'll know right away." Sanji nodded. Of course he knew that, and he wasn't going to fuck up. When he closed the door behind him he let out a sigh of relief, first part done, now for the real challenge. He took a deep breath and started walking.

* * *

><p>Zoro sat leaning against the wall in the dojo, his work-out with the kids had been good, it had given him some time to think about something else than Sanji for a while. Koshiro hadn't been pleased that he'd gotten a detention again, but had postponed his session with the kids earlier anyway. Now that the kids were gone, he was once again left with his thoughts straying onto the topic of a certain blond. He had absolutely no idea why Sanji occupied his thoughts that much, he'd just met the guy for fucks sake, and it wasn't the normal thoughts he had when he thought of guys. Yes, he fantasized about guys, in various positions, beneath him, on top of him and so on. But his thoughts of Sanji were of curiosity, what was the guy hiding, why did he space out as much as he did, what were those emotions flickering in his eye in those moments. He had never wanted to understand a guy, crack him open or something, as much as this. He was a physical person; he had never cared for the sentimental things, ever. So what the fuck was it with Sanji that made him so on edge and curious?<p>

He had wanted to bang his head in; this was Grand-Fucking-Line for fucks sake, where you're not supposed to ask about anything, everything is secret and locked away.

"Fuck…" He rubbed his eyes with his palms, he needed an escape, and he needed it bad.

* * *

><p>Ace was lying on a bed when his cell started blasting D-12's Fight Music; he turned his head towards the clock, eleven thirty pm. It had to be Zoro, nobody else would try calling him at this time. Luckily his company had left for work, so he slowly rolled over and fished his phone out of his pants that were lying on the floor.<p>

"Hey man, what's up?"

...

"uh-huu.."

...

"Sure, I'll be there in 20"

...

"Oh and Zoro, don't do anything stupid ok?"

Ace had gotten dressed, he had wanted to take a shower, but that could wait until later. Zoro had been agitated, which was a rarity in itself, but there was this urgency in his voice that made Ace worry something bad was going to happen. He grabbed his helmet from the shelf and tugged on his boots, he just remembered to lock the door on his way out, and hurried over to his bike.

It wasn't that it was weird for Zoro to call him at this hour, and have him meet up with him there. He knew Zoro just wanted to have someone to back him up when it went down, but if he was going to be honest with himself he was worried Zoro might go overboard this night. Which was why he was racing through the streets, cutting corners, dodging cars left and right, hoping he would make it in time, to calm the man down a bit before he did anything stupid.

Racing through East-side at night was thankfully something he was used to, but he still kept a sharp eye out for anything going on around him, you couldn't be too careful, especially when you're about to enter the lawless area of Lougetown district.

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><p>Zoro stood outside tapping his boot on the ground, what was taking Ace so fucking long. Fine it had only been 10 minutes since he called, but damn he needed the guy, and quick. He'd changed out of his kendo uniform and into his black jeans and tank-top at home, strapped his bag over his shoulder, gotten on his bike and driven, for some reason he always ended up here. Which was why he had called Ace, he couldn't go in there alone tonight, not in this state anyway.<p>

His hands were twitching as they had been for the last half hour. If he had been a chain smoker, he probably would have lit a cig right about now, just to take the edge of. It wasn't that he was stressed or anything, but his thoughts were driving him crazy, he needed some relief, so if sex didn't work this sure would.

He tried focusing on what he was going to do, calming himself enough so he was sure he wouldn't screw up, he just couldn't afford that, but it wasn't helping. His mind wouldn't allow him, and as he was about to punch the wall in fury, someone grabbed his arm, stopping him dead in his track. He spun around and was about to punch whatever poor soul who dared to touch him now.

"Whoa, calm down man, it's me."

Zoro stopped dead, his mind so filled with blind fury it took him a couple of seconds to react to the words that were being spoken to him, and as his eyes slowly allowed him to see who was in front of him, he cringed. "Ace…"

"Um yeah. Damn what's with you today? I haven't seen you like this since we were kids."

"M'sorry, just a shit load on my mind, and this was the only place I could think of that I could go to…" He trailed of; he didn't need to explain anymore to Ace, it was enough. He would understand, and seeing as how messed up he was now, Ace probably understood more than he was letting on. He did however beat himself up over almost punching Ace in blind rage, which hadn't happened since they were young and he couldn't control himself.

"Let's go, you need a glass of something strong my friend." Ace really was the best friend he had, knowing when to stay shut about stuff and offering his silent comfort instead.

They walked up to the door in silence, where they were met with a grinning and slightly tipsy Yosaku who let them in with a nod, as they passed him he leaned in and whispered something in Aces ear. Ace looked at him and then nodded knowingly. Zoro was about to turn around to ask what that was about, but didn't have time as he was suddenly jumped upon by a black haired teen with a wide smile plastered on his face.

He had stood his ground, and it hadn't taken him long to register who it was that were now hanging on him like a monkey, "Luffy…" Zoro felt his voice drip with malice, "what, are you doing here tonight?"

"Zoro, you meanie, I'm here because I like it here, dumbass, and besides I only have easy stuff at school tomorrow and Nojiko doesn't care what we do as long as we're there so she can take attendance."

_Figures_. Of course Luffy would be here, where there is trouble, you could be sure Luffy would be there too. Ace just stood there watching and then shook his head. Zoro looked at him, wishing him to tell Luffy to let go and go home, but the face Ace gave back showed that he didn't really care what his little brother was doing. _Typical Ace._

"Luffy let the man go would yah? You'll see him later."

At least Ace got that part of the message; he'd had to thank the man later, now he had other things to fix.

"I'm heading down, I'll see you down in a bit then Ace?"

"Yeah man, I'll bring you something strong, don't forget to go talk to Johnny, he's in charge of the sign-up tonight."

"Ait, I'll keep an eye out for him then"

As he made his way through the sea of people he noticed people staring at him, not that that was anything new, but it unnerved him slightly, they weren't looking at him with fear like they used to. They watched him and grinned, like they were mocking him. Just who the fuck was here tonight? Well, he'd probably figure it out soon anyway, so no use getting worked up over it. Now he had to locate Johnny, and then make his way down to the locker rooms to get ready.

Johnny was probably in the basement already, making sure everything was set for the night, not that anything happened until after midnight anyway, so he had plenty of time to sign up and get ready.

He walked with confidence, not breaking stride, and looking all the smug he could muster, it was just like school, only here you had to do it in order not to get killed, and in school you, well you did it in order to not get killed, so yeah it was just like school. He amused himself with the similarity, and made his way down the stairs. Paulie was standing by the door, trying to look as menacing as he could, which always cracked Zoro up, the guy just wasn't cut out for it. He could however put up a decent fight if it came to it, and that was why he worked here he guessed.

"Hey Paulie, Johnny down here?"

"Oh, hey Zoro, yeah he should be in the booth, you signing up tonight?"

"Planned on it, any important on the list?"

"Well, I wouldn't call them important, but Buggy and his men are here, and I heard that some of them have signed up."

"oho, sounds like fun, hope they've trained since last time, cause that was just embarrassing on their behalf." So that's why people had been grinning at him like that. This should be fun then.

"Yeah, Buggy hasn't signed up though, since Luffy is here."

"Figures, oh well, thanks man, cya later."

"Yeah cya"

Paulie opened the door and let him through, there weren't many down here yet, but he figured people would be streaming in when it got closer to show down.

Paulie had been right, Johnny was in the booth going over the list and frowning.

"Hey Johnny, why the face?"

"Hey Zoro-bro, thank god you're here, I needed someone I could pair Cabaji with, you down with going up against him again? I know last time was a rough one on yah, he's a bastard and all..."

"Hell yeah, I wouldn't miss defeating him again"

He had really hoped that Cabaji had signed up this time as well; he would make the bastard pay for what he did last time, since he had been injured that time, it had been harder to beat him. This time he was perfectly healthy, and nothing would stop him wiping the floor with the poor suckers face.

"Zoro-bro you're not allowed to kill him you know..." Johnny sounded almost scared.

"Oh I won't kill him, against the rules and stuff I know, I'll just wipe the floor with his face, that's all." He knew he probably had the most demonic smile on his face, but this what he needed tonight, this was good.

"Okay... I'll put you up as second then, so you should be on after Paman[1] and Mohji, and as I don't think that would take long, just be ready at one."

"Sure, I'm heading for the lockers, if Ace comes looking tell him he'll find me there"

The locker room was fortunately empty, so he put his bag down on one of the benches and got out his black haramaki, he'd wanted to wear his green signature one, but as the rules were all-black he'd complied with the rules and gotten a black one. He tugged of his tank-top and slid his haramaki over his torso and down to his hips, letting it cover his lower half. He let his fingers glide over the fabric and felt himself getting calmer by the motion, yes this was good therapy.

He sat down on the floor and took out his three most prized possessions and laid them in front of himself, starting with his two common katanas and then his white one, Wado Ichimonji, oh how he treasured her. The only thing he had been allowed to keep from his old life.

He picked up Wado and put her on his lap, he felt her hum at his grip, "please give me strength tonight..." he whispered, hoping she would help him keep his sanity, and not let his emotions get in the way and make him do something he would regret later.

"You know..." He looked up to see Ace grinning at him from the door way. "Sometimes I wonder about you, how you can go from absolutely livid, to so calm just by holding that katana is freaky."

"hmf, I would think you're more freaky than me, how you keep falling asleep in the middle of eating is fucking sick, and disgusting I might add, what time is it anyway?" He got up and strapped his katana to his hip, brushing off some dust from his pants and started to make his way over to the other man.

Ace scoffed, "Yeah well, I have a condition to show for it, you don't." He handed Zoro a glass of sake, and got out his phone, "It's just half past twelve, when you on?"

He took the glass and downed the content in two gulps, letting the savoured liquid glide down his throat, calming him. "Mmm, that's good sake, who'd you bribe this time? And Johnny said to be ready at one, so we should probably head out."

Ace just smiled "wouldn't you like to know." He then turned around and was about the head out the door when Zoro stopped him.

"Thanks man, I mean it." Zoro didn't really know what else he could say, he wanted Ace to know how much this meant to him, having him there supporting him, and backing him up, but he had never been good with words, he just hoped Ace understood.

Ace turned half way towards Zoro and patted him on the shoulder. "I will always be here to back you up Zoro, you don't have to thank me, we're, what do you call it? Nakama? We're always there for each other, no matter what."

Fuck he was a mess today, he wanted to hug Ace so bad, but they didn't do stuff like that, so he did the next best thing and patted Ace on his shoulder. "Yeah nakama, it fits our group perfectly, more than friends, sort of like a family."

They made their way out to the open area. People had started to come down, and a crowd was forming fast, most of the people were common high-rollers, people with deep pockets and too much free time on their hands. Zoro hated them, they were mostly high-profiled people in the society, presumably good respected men and women, but at night these people became blood thirsty monsters who came here to spend their so called good-earned money on people like himself. He felt like a stained dog, it disgusted him. But this wasn't something he did for money, though the cash did come in handy later. This was something he did so that he could remain crewless; it gave him position to decline people when they tried to recruit him, and it also was a place where he could fight freely.

This, Zoro mused, was Spiders Café, one of the most respected bars and nightclubs in the midst of the outlaw district, Lougetown, but it was first and foremost the biggest underground fight club in all of Grand Line. You wouldn't know it by looking at it, so to the outsiders it just looked like a good place for a beer and occasionally good music; it was only when you were allowed into the basement that the smell of dried blood would remind you of that in a butcher's shop. The dampness of the room mixed with various booze and cigarette smoke only helped to heighten the feel of what went down here at night.

You would enter the room and come out onto a balcony overlooking a large podium with a metal cage surrounding it. The floor of the basement had been lowered to make the room larger; it had also been expanded so that it was bigger than the building upstairs. The common high-rollers would make their way down another set of stairs to stand around the podium, and the VIPs would be seated at the other balconies alongside the other walls. They would use the various passageways over the podium which had been made exclusively for them to walk on, so they didn't have to walk among the commoners. This was also where the security would stand guard with their STG-58's and MG9's, if there was going to be a showdown between members of powerful gangs. This was usually used mainly as a precaution though, as the treat of a massive fight between the gangs was high during those fights. Zoro himself had never been there during those fights because he wasn't allowed in when the big stuff was going down; he would have loved seeing one of those fights though, they were fucking legendary.

He remembered he had started to fight here regularly when he was 14, when Ace had introduced him to this world. In the beginning he'd gotten his ass kicked almost weekly, nothing serious, luckily. He didn't want to think about what Koshiro might have done if he'd found out then. Now, he was one of the top fighters in the club, except for maybe Ace and Luffy, and the owners that is. He still remembered his fist time in the place, him and Ace sneaking in through one of the escape passages with the help from Johnny and Yosaku, and got to watch a fight between Higuma and L. Ro [2]. It had been over before either of them had time to blink, and Higuma had lost miserably, but it had been awesome none the less.

After that, they had snuck in every Friday to either watch fights, or sign up for fights themselves. In the beginning they'd been laughed at when they wanted to sign up, but had been allowed anyway, probably to humour the people in the club. What the onlookers probably wasn't prepared for was that both him and Ace actually were pretty good fighters, and even if they lost some of their fights; they always came back stronger every week and kept fighting no matter what. They kept that routine for a couple of years, until Ace got a promotion in the gang. They had to stop going weekly then, and now they only went a couple of times a month if they had time for it. Zoro also had less time since he was taking over more and more of the lessons at the dojo. But now and then they had occasional nights like this, when neither could sleep or was too agitated to do anything else, and needed the relief a good match brought.

"Oi Zoro, you're almost up, you gotta have your wits about you now, kay?" Ace nudged him to get him out of his straying thoughts. The fight had, as Johnny had said it would, gone fast. Paman had won easily enough and bore no physical signs of actually having been in a fight to begin with.

"Yeah, I know. I'm ready."

* * *

><p>Sanji was tired. No, that was an understatement, he was fucking exhausted. The only thing he could think of was how much he hated his life and how much he hated his damn father making him do this. But he sucked it up, like he always did and showed no emotion. He tried not to think of anything, tried to ignore the pain, he would deal with it when he was done and home in his room, if his father wasn't going to do anything to him then that is.<p>

He was done with the first, and had two more addresses left to visit, he had been to them before and knew what was in store for him when he got there, but he didn't have a choice, this was ten times better than staying at home afraid his father would snap for something.

He had no idea how long it would take or how much work his dad had planned for him this time though, he'd just accepted the note with addresses, changed clothes and gone straight out again. So he kept telling himself that he was almost done, just an hour more, and then to the next location for another hour, and then hopefully home without any problems. He would manage, it wasn't the first time, and certainly wasn't going to be the last. He just had to hold on a bit more.

* * *

><p>The match had lasted a bit longer than Zoro had anticipated, but he had won in the end. He had managed to get away from the match with only some small nicks to his arms where he had been careless and blocked sloppily. He needed to train more, this really wouldn't do. If he was to ever become the best, he couldn't afford such carelessness.<p>

"That fight was so cool Zoro" Luffy practically bounced up and down with excitement.

"Haha, thanks Luffy" He wasn't so sure it had been, and since Luffy thought everything was either cool or awesome, or both, his praise went on deaf ears. Not that he thought Luffy had cared for a retort though; the kid had flown off somewhere, probably going to challenge one of the leaders, as he had done ever since Ace had brought him along one night. Or rather Luffy had followed him, and had decided that he wanted in on the fun as well.

He turned to Ace who stood leaning against the wall, "How was it really? A bit too stretched out or?" If anyone was going to give him a straight answer it was Ace.

Ace nodded in contemplation, probably going through the match in his head, and then raised his head and looked at Zoro. "The match was ok, not your best I gotta say, and probably a bit too long for our taste, but the crowd was having a blast with it at least, which is always good."

Zoro nodded, crowd pleasers were good for business, but not necessarily for the contestants. The match had done what it should however; he didn't feel as agitated anymore. "Well something good came out of it at least, we beat Buggy's guys again, now they might come down from their high horse and stop bugging us for a while." He cocked a grin at Ace, who mirrored his grin in turn.

"Yeah, you wish, those idiots are probably still flying on a pink cloud somewhere, nothing we do will ever make them land on earth again." Ace laughed, and Zoro had to laugh too.

"Hey man you up for grabbing a beer? Or are you going straight home?" Zoro asked, secretly hoping that Ace would say the latter. He was dead tired, even with the adrenaline still pumping through his veins.

"I do actually have a place I should be tonight, but we can grab a quick beer and then bounce, what do you say?" Ace looked like he was torn between wanting to stay with Zoro and running home fast as fuck.

"Oh, you've got somewhere to be, have you now? I didn't think you got orders this late, wasn't that part of the promotion you got a year ago?" He looked at Ace with a curious and slightly intrigued face. Ace wasn't the one to go around keeping potential bed partners a secret, as he frequently bragged about all the girls he had bedded over the years. Not that it was any of his business who Ace slept with, but it would be something to have over him in a potential situation where he needed a good insult of sorts.

Ace didn't look at Zoro "It's none of your business man, just... just, leave it."

That, Zoro hadn't expected. Ace was embarrassed? "Fine I'll drop it for now, but you've gotten me interested, and you know I won't leave this alone forever"

Ace, still looking at everything but Zoro, "That's fine, just not tonight, ok? I'll tell you when... well, I'll tell you some other time."

Zoro nodded, he wouldn't push it. Ace would tell him when the time was right. But he couldn't understand just what and who Ace was sleeping around with that he'd be embarrassed, and what was that scared? Embarrassed and scared to tell him about it. Just what the fuck was going on?

Well no use trying to get any more info out of the man, but a quick beer in silence sounded good too."Alright, let's grab a quick beer upstairs, then head on home or whatever"

They made their way up the stairs to the balcony where Paulie stood keeping a keen eye out for any potential trouble, and were again trying to look menacing, but failing hard. They nodded at each other, as Zoro and Ace passed him, but made no further contact than that. When they reached the top of the stairs they could see that it was packed with people, and Zoro was again reminded of why he hated clubs. The music was deafening, and there were just too much people everywhere.

They eventually managed to wade their way through the throng of people and over to the bar where they shooed away two drunkards and took their seats. "Hey Blueno, a beer for each of us if you please." Ace ordered. Blueno nodded and handed them a bottle each, which they gladly took without a word.

They sat like that for a while, and Zoro mused over the fact that he was having the same feeling now that he had had when he sat on the roof with Sanji less than 12 hours ago.

* * *

><p>Sanji kept running; he had messed up. The job had gone smooth, the clients had been pleased, and it had looked like everything was going fine. That was until he had left the last resident, everything had suddenly gone really bad at that point. Someone had found out he was working tonight, he didn't know how, but someone had. It had happened when he was almost at the bridge over to north from west; a gang of thuds had jumped him. He wasn't sure what gang they were from, the only thing he knew was that they had to be rookies; the west <span>was<span> crawling with them.

He had managed to defend himself, but it had been painful and tiring, and as he didn't know many friends the thugs had lurking around, he had run. He hated leaving in the middle of a fight; he'd always tried to finish what had been started. It didn't seem like he was going to be able to do that tonight. His insides were burning; the cuts on his thighs from his father's lashing had become excruciatingly painful, and all he had wanted to do was to get home to his bed so that he could breakdown in silence.

He hoped his father hadn't gotten word of it yet, though he knew he would at some point, as he had contacts all over the city. He also knew that when it did, he was in for a rough time, again.

* * *

><p>[1] I decided that Paman sounded better than Pandaman in this context, since this is kind of supposed to be the "real" world sort of.<p>

[2] is Lucky Roo, and again I decided to change his name, to make it more "normal" or something...


	8. Chapter 8

**Authors note:** Sorry for making such a long hiatus, I've been really busy and still am. So chapter 9 probably won't be posted for a while. I'll try writing some more after my exams are done, so hopefully I'll be able to post more during the summer vacation.

I'm really grateful for all the feedback I've gotten, it means a lot to me. And even though I don't usually reply to you guy's I read every review you leave me. Makes me want to work even harder to make my stories better, and keep writing on them. Thank you so much!

Notes in the story:

[1] IDC = Impel Down Correctional

[2] Mr. Umi = Johnny, because of the tattoo on his left cheek saying "Umi/Sea"

* * *

><p># 8<p>

Zoro was angry. No, that's an understatement, he was fucking livid. It was just so fucking typical, and it wasn't even his fault, well technically it had been his fault for giving that kid a good beating, but the kid had fucking asked for it. What he didn't understand was why it had been poor little Chopper who had been picked on. The boy was literally too cute for his own good, so why anyone would pick on him was unfathomable for him. Of course the guards had come and dragged him to the principal's office and told him all the way how much of a low-life he was, and that he was a good-for-nothing thug who shouldn't be allowed into society. That there probably was a nice cell for him over at IDC* and that they hoped Lucci would get some order to this place soon. The prattle had gone on, but Zoro had closed his ears to it, he had heard it before and it was getting redundant.

So here he was, sitting outside of Lucci's office, twiddling his thumbs and wanting to bash someone's head in. Chopper was the youngest in their group of nakama, and if Zoro had known about how families were supposed to act, he might have been aware that Chopper was like a little brother to him. All he knew was that his rage had boiled over when some little freshman-prick had messed with his friend.

He was also sleep deprived from the long night yesterday, and the late night the day before that, and even though it had done him good then, he knew he was paying for it now. He was aware that his emotions got messed up when he got too little sleep, but there wasn't much helping it when he was having problems with reoccurring memories from his childhood, and also the problems he was having with Sanji and the situation surrounding that.

The door to his left opened and Igaram stepped out, "hrmh, mah, maah, maaah, Mr. Lucci is ready to see you Roronoa, I don't need to tell you where is door is, do I?" Igaram looked down at him and shook his head disapprovingly, which he always did, but this time Zoro didn't have the strength to look the man in the eye, he had promised Igaram to stay out of trouble, hadn't he? And here he was, just the next day, beating up a freshman seemingly without a cause. There was no way he would get off with just a detention this time.

As he was on his way through the door into the office, he heard the door to the waiting room open, "Ah, hmrh maah maah, you must be Mr. Black, Mr. Lucci will see you in a little while, please take a seat in the mean while." Igaram gestured. Zoro had just enough time to whip his head around in time to see Sanji coming through the door, but was ushered inside by Igaram before he was able to do anything else. What was Sanji doing here? By Zoro's memory he never got in trouble at school, not that he knew about anyways. What could he have done to have him being sent to Lucci's office of all places? Usually it was Igaram's responsibility to take care of misdemeanours, and hand out detentions and such.

He was suddenly dragged out of his thoughts as he, by habit, had knocked on Lucci's door, and the man's voice bombarded his senses. "It is open Roronoa", Zoro opened the door and walked inside with all the confidence he could. "Hey Lucci" he scratched the back of his head.

"Take a seat Roronoa" Lucci barely looked up from what he was reading, but gestured with a wave of his hand that Zoro should take the chair on the opposite side of his desk, most likely so that Lucci could have direct eye contact with him when he spoke.

"Why is it that whenever there is a disturbance in the school yard..." He looked up from his notes and directed his cat-like eyes at Zoro "...you, Portgas, or the both of you, is involved with it, or are the ones that started it?" Zoro felt a sweat drop travel down between his shoulder blades, he wasn't sure if he should answer the question or not, he just knew that if he spoke his voice would probably betray him, and that would definitely not be a good idea. He knew Lucci was hot, but the man was also scary as fuck, more so than anything else really, and he was sure that if he was found out he would be dead within seconds. Getting aroused by a teacher was one thing, not that he usually did that, but by your scary as shit principal was on a totally different level.

"I have been informed of your misdemeanours this week, as I can be sure you are already well aware of..." He put his notes on his desk, and stood up, "...So you are also aware that we have no other choice but to take action now, and give you a proper punishment for you behaviour." He strode over to the window looking out over the empty school yard. "Do you have anything to say in defence for your actions Mr. Roronoa?" He turned his head and looked at Zoro.

Zoro swallowed, "Yeah, I do, but I know it won't change shit anyway." He had tried to argue his case so many times before, and it hadn't helped then, so it probably wouldn't help this time either. But as Lucci was probably expecting him to at least explain himself before he said anything else, he just had to go through with it. "A freshman, Stelly I believe he's called, was making fun of a friend of mine, picking on him and shit, I just kinda snapped. I hate stuck up brats like that, that think they're better than anyone else." He slumped lower in the chair crossing his arms in defiance. He had said what he wanted, not really caring if it was a horrible defence or not. Lucci had to be used to his seemingly bad English at this point, or at least learned what to expect from him when it came to explanations.

Lucci stroked his chin, "Stelly is indeed his name, and he is from a highly respected Noble-family, as you should be well aware of Roronoa." He cocked an eyebrow at Zoro, and proceeded to move calmly from the window over to a file cabinet on the other side of the room. Zoro followed him with his eyes, pretending not to be bothered by the way his principal oozed power and confidence, but actually being quite vary of every move the man made. Lucci was not a man you would want on your bad side, everyone knew that.

"Well I don't give a shit about who's a noble or royalty or whatever, I don't care where they're from when they decide on picking on my friends, they get what they deserve, that's all." He didn't discriminate, or at least tried not to; he gave everyone a good beating if they deserved it, it didn't matter where they were from or who their family was in his mind.

Lucci had taken up a folder and had started to go through it while walking over to his desk again. It was probably his file for this semester, which Zoro was amused to find, was already quite full. "Well Mr. Roronoa, as it is not the first time you have assaulted a Noble family member, you have two accounts already this autumn, we have no choice but to suspend you this time." Lucci had placed the file on his desk and sat down leaning back into his chair. "You will be suspended for three school days, in which I hope you come to some sense about your behaviour here at school, the suspension will take action today, where you are to leave the school grounds, and you will not be allowed onto the school premises until next Wednesday where you will meet her for a hearing, am I clear?"

"Clear as water, now can I go?" It was a substantially milder punishment than he had expected, and three days without school wouldn't be that bad really, he might actually get some real training done for once. He was on his way to stand up and get out of there, when Lucci held up his hand for him to wait. "Just, one moment Roronoa. A word on behalf of Kaku and I, do not come by in all of November month, you will understand I presume." Zoro looked quizzically at him, "I am not sure I understand why, but if it's an order, I won't." He finally stood up and walked over to the door, before opening it he turned his head around toward the other man, "Should I tell Ace and the rest, or will one of the others do that?" Lucci had already gone back to his notes, but looked up at the question, "That won't be necessary, I will have Kalifa inform the rest. You may leave now, and tell Igaram to send in Mr. Black on your way out." Zoro turned back to the door and opened it, "Sure."

On the mention of Sanji, Zoro was once again reminded that he was currently sitting in waiting area, and he wanted to know what the blond had done. He walked over to Igaram, "Lucci is waiting for the next poor bastard, he told me to tell you to send him in, what did the guy do?" It was a long shot asking Igaram what Sanji had done, but it didn't hurt to try. "That's, hrmh, mah maah maaah... that's fine Roronoa, I believe we will be seeing you back here next Wednesday then, with an improved behaviour, I have informed Koshiro of your suspension. And what Mr. Black has done is of no concern of yours." Igaram got up from his chair and walked with Zoro over to the door, "Now stay out of trouble will you?" He levelled him with a concerned look. Zoro looked back and shrugged, "Can't promise anything of that sort, sorry." At least he had been honest this time. "I'll see you next Wednesday then." Igaram opened the door and let him out.

* * *

><p>Sanji was and had been sitting on a chair outside the office for what felt like an hour. He had been sitting next to the exit so that he could, if something happened, make a quick escape. Not that he thought it would be necessary; it was just that he had made a habit of it over the years. He was sure he had seen Zoro when he had come in, but Igaram had pushed the guy past him and inside before he had gotten a quick glance at the other guy. If it had been Zoro, it would make a lot of sense, especially if he had been around when that Noble-kid got a bit roughed up. Maybe he was the one that had beaten the kid as well, he had a reputation for beating up kids randomly at times, him and Ace Portgas that is.<p>

Suddenly he heard muffled voices from inside the office, but couldn't make out what they said. So he just reckoned it was nearly his time now. The reason he had been sent to Lucci and not any other school official, he wasn't so sure of. But he had a hunch it had something to do with his father, and that his behaviour at school was to be kept under wraps for some reason. He also suspected Kureha to have a hand in on it, though he wasn't sure why he did that.

The door opened and he heard Igaram tell Zoro he would see him on Wednesday. Now, what was that all about?

Zoro then turned around towards him and both raised an eyebrow in question towards each other, silently asking what the other had done, but before either could say a word Igaram called out for Sanji that Lucci was waiting for him. Sanji rose from where he had been sitting, there was no going back now, and as he went past Zoro he didn't look at him. He wasn't sure if they could be civil to each other in this setting or not, but he decided that it was better to play it safe, which was to ignore the other. He just hoped that Zoro would catch on and do the same, and wouldn't get offended by Sanjis act.

He was still wandering about what Zoro had done, and what was meant by words Igaram had said to him. They echoed inside Sanjis brain like a mantra, and it only confused him more. Did this mean Zoro had been suspended? Or was he thinking too much into this, like he always did?

The musings about the marimo head was short lived however, as he approached Lucci's door and knocked on it.

"It's open" he heard the man call from the inside, suddenly he didn't feel very confident. It wasn't that he and Lucci were on bad terms or anything; it was just that the man was scary as fuck, that's all.

"Ah, Mr. Black, thank you for stopping by." Lucci looked at him, smirking slightly. Sanji inwardly shuddered; a smirking Lucci was never a good sign. "Well it was Beckman who sent me here in the first place, not much I can do but comply." He shrugged and made his way over to the chair Zoro had occupied only some short moments ago, and sat down folding one leg over the other. He knew it would be painful sitting like that. But image was too important now to care about a little pain.

"Well, I suppose you know why you are here then?" Lucci raised an eyebrow quizzically at him.

"I suppose it has something to do with me being late to class a lot, or is there more?" He was aware of the fact he had been late almost every day for two weeks now, and he was honestly surprised he hadn't been sent to Lucci's office sooner.

Lucci smirked again "Well, it is the main reason, yes, but also I wanted a word with you about your old man, if you don't mind."

Sanji viably paled, he had totally forgotten that Lucci regularly sought him out in order to attain information on his father and his associates. He wasn't completely sure why his headmaster would need such information, but he didn't dare to dwell on it. This was Grand Line and for all he knew, Lucci could be anything from an undercover cop, to a gang leader, he preferred not to know.

"To be honest Lucci, I don't know what he's up to these days" That wasn't entirely true, he had an idea of something going down, and that there were to be some sort of shit happening closer to Christmas or just after the New Year. The info he had gathered was inconclusive.

"I don't believe that, and neither do you Blackleg, now tell me what you know" Lucci leaned back into his chair. It had been a command, and Sanji knew better than to disobey a direct order from the man. He also knew better than to lie to him.

"Well, I don't know much, just the basics of things; the intel hasn't been clear on anything. But from what I've gathered, there's going to be a trade-off closer to Christmas, or maybe after New Year, I also don't know what gangs are involved or what the trade is about. The only conclusive data I've got at this point is that Donflamingo has teamed up with my father." He tried sorting his thoughts, going through what information he knew and what was important to the case. The information he had gathered was mostly stuff he'd heard the clients bitch about when he had been working for his father the other night. He had never been one for small talk, but some of his clients just wouldn't shut up. There was especially one who had been bitching about his father and DF teaming up for something, and planning on offing the poor fuckers instead. "Oh, and I believe they plan on killing someone from the others gangs before or during the trade, not sure on that one, as I said the intel is scarce and inconclusive"

Sanji desperately tried to filter through his mind looking for important bits and pieces from his clients the other night, trying to keep his emotions at bay and school his expression at the same time. Not an easy task when you're trying to concentrate on what words were spoken, between getting fucked by various clients all night. He suddenly felt exhaustion creep over him as he relieved his night all over again in fast forward mode.

"Well it is a start; I want you to come by with weekly report on this matter Blackleg if you could be so kind?" Lucci's voice was like a piercing knife cutting through his mind and wrenching him away from his silent torture of reliving last night. "Uh, I'll try, but I'm not sure what more I'll be able to tell you really." His father usually didn't confide in him, and he liked it that way. He didn't want to be dragged into the mess his father did.

"Anything you find out will be fine, now for the main reason you are here. I usually leave this stuff for Igaram, but seeing as you _are_ a special case, I will be the one to deal with it." Lucci rose from his seat and walked over to a file cabinet. "I won't punish you for this, but you already knew that, didn't you?"

Sanji nodded "Yeah, I figured as much, so what will you write in my file this time?"

Lucci opened the file cabinet and dug out a relatively thin file, "Oh not much, I will put it down as lateness due to extra work for me, or something, don't worry about it." He took the file with him over to the desk and put it beside another one, which to Sanji's surprise was substantially larger than his own. "I need you to continue being in school to minimize any suspicion." Sanji raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't question Lucci about it any further. Really he didn't dare to question anything Lucci did or said.

"So whose file is that beside mine?" That, however was something he wanted answered. He figured it was Zoro's, but he had to be sure.

"Oh, this?" Lucci pointed at the other file lying on the desk. "This is Mr. Roronoa's" Lucci took it up. "He has been a good student this semester." Lucci nodded.

Sanji was confused, "Good student?"

"Oh yes, Roronoa's file this semester is quite smaller than last semester's by this time." Lucci nodded.

Sanji was intrigued, and slightly horrified. How anyone could do so much shit and still be in school, was just short of a miracle. But then again this school was run by Lucci, and no one had been expelled as long as Sanji had been there. Suspended yes, but never expelled.

"Do you mind?" Sanji held out a hand. "Not at all, but remember this is confidential papers, and what you read in there stays in this room." Lucci handed him the file and Sanji laid it in his lap. "Of course, I know the rules." Sanji replied with a snort. He hoped Lucci wouldn't mind his rudeness.

He skimmed through the papers; small misdemeanours here and there were the most common ones. But once in a while he found notes such as: _Mr. Roronoa and Mr. Portgas was found in possession of 2grams of Marijuana, an unlit joint and a pack with 4 tablets of Ecstasy – drugs were taken into possession of the Grand Line Police, the students have both received 4 weeks of after school mandatory activities, which they are to attend. Failing to attend, for whatever reason, will result in expulsion from school for 1 year. Sign Lucci._ Sanji wanted to laugh; the thought of Zoro attending after school activities in order to stay in school was a bit shocking. Mostly because he would have though Zoro wouldn't care and probably wouldn't mind quitting school a bit early. But since he was still here, meant that he definitely had done it. It intrigued Sanji to find out why Zoro hadn't just quit.

Reading a bit further Sanji found another note; this was only a couple of weeks old: "_Mr. Roronoa was caught having sexual intercourse with Mr. Umi* on school grounds. Punishment was not enforced as the act of getting caught is punishment in itself. Signed: Kaku._ Now Sanji definitely started laughing. The fact that Zoro had been having sex with another man didn't go unnoticed, but that he had been stupid enough to actually have sex with someone in the middle of the day, and in a spot where they could get caught just cracked him up. He knew the marimo head was stupid, but something like that just shot his stupidity to another level.

Lucci had leaned over to see what he was laughing about and nodded "That was the time Kaku caught Roronoa in the gym's equipment room, Kaku said that Roronoa hadn't been bothered about getting caught, but poor Mr. Umi had been beside himself with embarrassment, so Kaku hadn't punished them other than told them to hit the showers." Lucci clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Not the first time Roronoa has been caught having sex on school grounds, and probably won't be the last."

Sanji was struck between envying Zoro for his freedom to have sex with people like that, and horrified by the fact that Zoro actually did have that much sex with people without it having serious consequences. Zoro could have caught some nasty STD's that way; Sanji knew those dangers almost too well. He himself was having regular check-ups at Kureha's clinic, because of the work he did for his father at times. He silently hoped Zoro did the same.

"Now , I do believe you have lectures to attend, Igaram will write you a late-slip for this, and remember not a word about any of this to anyone." Lucci held out his hand for Zoro's file and Sanji handed it to him. "Of course sir, thank you. I will try to come by once a week if I get more news of my father's future plans." Sanji stood up and moved toward the door, holding his hand on the handle he turned his head towards Lucci. "Oh, may I ask why you allowed me to read Zoro's file?"

Lucci smirked and looked at Sanji, "Because I'm easily bored Mr. Black, nothing more." Sanji nodded his head and exited the room.


End file.
